The detained WNBA star Brittney Griner made a direct appeal to US president Joe Biden for her freedom in a handwritten letter that was delivered to the White House on Monday morning, according to her representatives.
“I’m terrified I might be here forever,” an excerpt shared by Griner’s representatives with the Guardian said. “I realize you are dealing with so much, but please don’t forget about me and the other detainees. Please do all you can to bring us home.”
Griner, one of America’s most decorated women’s basketball players, was detained by the Russian Federal Customs Service in February after it said it discovered vape cartridges that contained hashish oil in her luggage at an airport near Moscow. Her trial began on Friday and it has been widely speculated that Moscow could use Griner to negotiate the release of a high-profile Russian in US custody.
The letter, which invoked America’s Independence Day, also made mention of her father’s service in the US Marine Corps, which included two tours of duty in Vietnam.
“On the 4th of July, our family normally honors the service of those men who fought for our freedom, including my father who is a Vietnam War Veteran,” another excerpt read. “It hurts thinking about how I usually celebrate this day because freedom means something completely different to me this year.”
A representative for Griner said the entirety of the letter to Biden was being kept private and that her wife, Cherelle, was unavailable for comment.
Last month, Cherelle Griner told CNN that she feels not enough is being done by US diplomats, despite their best intentions.
“I don’t think the maximum amount of effort is being done because again, the rhetoric and the actions don’t match,” she said in an interview.
Other portions of the two-time Olympic gold medalist’s letter read: “As I sit here in a Russian prison, alone with my thoughts and without the protection of my wife, family, friends, Olympic jersey, or any accomplishments, I’m terrified I might be here forever.”
Griner also wrote that she voted for Biden in the most recent presidential election.
“I voted for the first time in 2020 and I voted for you,” another excerpt read. “I believe in you. I still have so much good to do with my freedom that you can help restore. I miss my wife! I miss my family! I miss my teammates! It kills me to know they are suffering so much right now. I am grateful for whatever you can do at this moment to get me home.”
Tthe White House reiterated on Monday that “the Russian Federation is wrongfully detaining Brittney Griner”.
“President Biden has been clear about the need to see all US nationals who are held hostage or wrongfully detained abroad released, including Brittney Griner. The US government continues to work aggressively – using every available means – to bring her home,” National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said in a statement. “The President’s team is in regular contact with Brittney’s family and we will continue to work to support her family.”
The 31-year-old Griner, who led the Phoenix Mercury to the franchise’s third ever title in 2014 and a surprise return to the WNBA finals in October, has also played for UMMC Ekaterinburg during the offseason since 2015, helping the Russian club to three domestic titles and EuroLeague Women championships in 2016, 2018, 2019 and 2021.
Mercury coach Vanessa Nygaard reacted to Griner’s letter on Monday during a pre-game news conference ahead of Phoenix’s game against the LA Sparks.
“It made me cry, you know, just hearing her words talking about her father being a Vietnam vet, her new perspective on freedom, her wanting to be with her family and her teammates, her not knowing if she’ll ever be free again,” Nygaard said. “On our day of freedom, hearing those words from such a beloved person … It’s great, and it’s great that she was able to get that message to us and hopefully some people are paying attention to it.”
Huntington, W.Va., Mayor Steve Williams, left, and lawyer Rusty Webb enter the Robert C. Byrd United States Courthouse in Charleston, W.Va., in May. A federal judge on Monday ruled in favor of three major U.S. drug distributors in a landmark lawsuit that accused them of causing a health crisis in a West Virginia county ravaged by opioid addiction.
Kenny Kemp/Charleston Gazette-Mail via AP
hide caption
toggle caption
Kenny Kemp/Charleston Gazette-Mail via AP
Huntington, W.Va., Mayor Steve Williams, left, and lawyer Rusty Webb enter the Robert C. Byrd United States Courthouse in Charleston, W.Va., in May. A federal judge on Monday ruled in favor of three major U.S. drug distributors in a landmark lawsuit that accused them of causing a health crisis in a West Virginia county ravaged by opioid addiction.
Kenny Kemp/Charleston Gazette-Mail via AP
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A federal judge on Monday ruled in favor of three major U.S. drug distributors in a landmark lawsuit that accused them of causing a health crisis by distributing 81 million pills over eight years in one West Virginia county ravaged by opioid addiction.
The verdict came nearly a year after closing arguments in a bench trial in the lawsuit filed by Cabell County and the city of Huntington against AmerisourceBergen Drug Co., Cardinal Health Inc. and McKesson Corp.
“The opioid crisis has taken a considerable toll on the citizens of Cabell County and the City of Huntington. And while there is a natural tendency to assign blame in such cases, they must be decided not based on sympathy, but on the facts and the law,” U.S. District Judge David Faber wrote in the 184-page ruling. “In view of the court’s findings and conclusions, the court finds that judgment should be entered in defendants’ favor.”
Cabell County attorney Paul Farrell had argued the distributors should be held responsible for sending a “tsunami” of prescription pain pills into the community and that the defendants’ conduct was unreasonable, reckless and disregarded the public’s health and safety in an area ravaged by opioid addiction.
The companies blamed an increase in prescriptions written by doctors along with poor communication and pill quotas set by federal agents.
While the lawsuit alleged the distributors created a public nuisance, Faber said West Virginia’s Supreme Court has only applied public nuisance law in the context of conduct that interferes with public property or resources. He said to extend the law to cover the marketing and sale of opioids “is inconsistent with the history and traditional notions of nuisance.”
Faber noted that the plaintiffs offered no evidence that the defendants distributed controlled substances to any entity that didn’t hold a proper registration from the Drug Enforcement Agency or the state Board of Pharmacy. The defendants also had suspicious monitoring systems in place as required by the Controlled Substances Act, he said.
“Plaintiffs failed to show that the volume of prescription opioids distributed in Cabell/Huntington was because of unreasonable conduct on the part of defendants,” Faber wrote.
In a statement, Cardinal Health said the judge’s ruling “recognizes what we demonstrated in court, which is that we do not manufacture, market, or prescribe prescription medications but instead only provide a secure channel to deliver medications of all kinds from manufacturers to our thousands of hospital and pharmacy customers that dispense them to their patients based on doctor-ordered prescriptions.
“As we continue to fulfill our limited role in the pharmaceutical supply chain, we operate a constantly adaptive and rigorous system to combat controlled substance diversion and remain committed to being part of the solution to the opioid crisis.”
Attorneys for the plaintiffs said they were “deeply disappointed” in the ruling.
“We felt the evidence that emerged from witness statements, company documents, and extensive datasets showed these defendants were responsible for creating and overseeing the infrastructure that flooded West Virginia with opioids. Outcome aside, our appreciation goes out to the first responders, public officials, treatment professionals, researchers, and many others who gave their testimony to bring the truth to light.”
Huntington Mayor Steve Williams said the ruling was “a blow to our city and community, but we remain resilient even in the face of adversity.
“The citizens of our city and county should not have to bear the principal responsibility of ensuring that an epidemic of this magnitude never occurs again.”
The plaintiffs had sought more than $2.5 billion that would have gone toward abatement efforts. The goal of the 15-year abatement plan would have been to reduce overdoses, overdose deaths and the number of people with opioid use disorder.
Last year in Cabell County, an Ohio River county of 93,000 residents, there were 1,067 emergency responses to suspected overdoses — significantly higher than each of the previous three years — with at least 158 deaths. So far this year, suspected overdoses have prompted at least 358 responses and 465 emergency room visits, according to preliminary data from the state Department of Health and Human Resources’ Office of Drug Control Policy.
The U.S. addiction crisis was inflamed by the COVID-19 pandemic with drug overdose deaths surpassing 100,000 in the 12-month period ending in April 2021, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s the highest number of overdose deaths ever recorded in a year.
The Cabell-Huntington lawsuit was the first time allegations involving opioid distribution ended up at federal trial. The result could have huge effects on similar lawsuits. Some have resulted in multimillion-dollar settlements, including a tentative $161.5 million settlement reached in May by the state of West Virginia with Teva Pharmaceuticals Inc., AbbVie’s Allergan and their family of companies.
In all, more than 3,000 lawsuits have been filed by state and local governments, Native American tribes, unions, hospitals and other entities in state and federal courts over the toll of opioids. Most allege that either drug makers, distribution companies or pharmacies created a public nuisance in a crisis that’s been linked to the deaths of 500,000 Americans over the past two decades.
In separate, similar lawsuits, the state of West Virginia reached a $37 million settlement with McKesson in 2019, and $20 million with Cardinal Health and $16 million with AmerisourceBergen in 2017.
More than 30,000 residents in Sydney were told to evacuate their homes Monday due to “life-threatening” floods.
Why it matters: Australia is facing its fourth round of flooding in less than a year and a half, per the Associated Press. The flooding has been considered one of the worst rounds of extreme weather for the country’s most populous city in the last 18 months.
Driving the news: A strong storm on the southeast coast of Australia has brought moisture inland, combining with rough seas and high winds, according to the Bureau of Meteorology Australia.
More than 1.6 feet of rain has poured over eastern New South Wales during the last 48 hours, CNN reports.
Officials reported at least 3 feet of rain after days of torrential rainfall, leading to overflowed dams and broken waterways, per AP.
Close to 32,000 people were given evacuation orders and warnings due to the widespread floods, New South Wales state Premier Dominic Perrottet told AP.
What they’re saying: “The latest information we have is that there’s a very good chance that the flooding will be worse than any of the other three floods that those areas had in the last 18 months,” Emergency Management Minister Murray Watt said, per AP.
A flooded area in a Sydney suburb. Photo: Saeed Khan/AFP via Getty ImagesA flooded area in a Sydney suburb. Photo: Saeed Khan/AFP via Getty ImagesA submerged road sign. Photo: Saeed Khan/AFP via Getty Images
What we’re watching: Sydney braced for more downpours on Monday with the weather slated to ease on Tuesday, per The Guardian.
The big picture: Flooding in Australia has become the new normal.
The country has seen some flooding during the early summer months. But now it’s become commonplace, which has raised questions about how to support communities that feel the brunt of the storms, per CNN.
Thought bubble via Axios’ Andrew Freedman: Heavy precipitation events are a hallmark of climate change, with warming air and sea temperatures boosting the amount of moisture in the atmosphere available for storms to wring out. Numerous studies show clear ties between increased extreme precipitation events worldwide and human-caused climate change.
The fact that this is the fourth major flood event in New South Wales, including Sydney, in such a short time illustrates Australia’s vulnerability to such events, as well as the challenges ahead for adapting to the new normal.
Members of the group, identified by police as Patriot Front, marched through the city on Saturday with concealed faces, wearing shirts that read “Reclaim America.”
The Anti-Defamation League, which tracks hate groups nationwide, has called Patriot Front a white supremacist group that spreads racism, antisemitism, and other forms of hate online. The ADL says the group is focused on “preserving America’s identity as a European-American one.”
Police say a Black man reported that he was assaulted during the march, after the man said he was trying to record the group on his cellphone. In the police report sent to ABC News by Boston Police Department officials, the man said Patriot Front members with shields began to surround and shove him after he started to record.
When he tried to shove back in order to free himself, he was knocked to the ground, kicked and beaten, the police report said.
The man suffered lacerations to his head, arms and hands, and was treated at a nearby hospital, according to the report. No arrests have been made.
The man later identified himself as Charles Murrell, an artist and social justice organizer. He spoke Monday at a gathering of Black leaders and urged listeners to attend local events about race, diversity and justice.
“There are ambassadors, artists, and people who care about the city and the image of this city, that have been doing the work, and we are inviting you to come share space with us,” Murrell said.
Mawakana Onifade, a friend and mentor of Murrell, said, “We will always stand in the face of the new Klan, there’s no mistake about this. When one covers one’s face, we know what is behind that.”
Local Black leaders called Patriot Front the “children of the KKK.”
“We’re not surprised. Boston has had a long legacy of racism,” said Reverend Kevin Peterson. “In fact, the city was founded on racism. Slaves were imported here. And that legacy continues into 2022.”
Leaders are calling on Mayor Michelle Wu to act quickly against the spread of hateful and dangerous ideologies.
“We can’t look at this as the new age. This is the old age that needs to be dismantled,” said Onifade. “Mayor Wu, what are you going to really do besides the words that we have been reading about. What is the call to action? Where is the accountability?”
Wu has condemned the march, tweeting that the “disgusting hate of white supremacists has no place here.”
“It is wholly repugnant to once again read reports and see videos on social media about dozens of Neo Nazis making another brazen public display with their hateful ideology,” Flynn wrote. “They have continued to make their presence known, most recently in March at the St. Patrick’s Day parade,” when Patriot Front members reportedly held up a “Keep Boston Irish” banner.
Wu said the investigation into the latest incident is ongoing and is being spearheaded by the city’s Civil Rights Unit, according to Boston ABC affiliate WCVB-TV.
“We’re looking into their identities and there already has been some information shared in various parts about the national leaders of this group who were part of this effort, who were in town, were present at the recent events as this group has gone to terrorize other communities as well,” Wu said.
More than eight hours after firing a “high-powered rifle” from a rooftop onto people attending Highland Park’s Fourth of July parade, killing six people and wounding dozens, the suspected gunman was pulled over peacefully on U.S. 41 in Lake Forest.
At 6:45 p.m. Monday, the Highland Park police said a “person of interest” — identified “through investigative leads” as Robert E. “Bobby” Crimo III, 22 — had been “taken into custody without incident” on U.S. 41 at Westleigh Road in Lake Forest.
The arrest came after he was spotted by a North Chicago police officer and following a short chase. Crimo was taken to the Highland Park police station, police Chief Lou Jogmen said.
Christopher Covelli of the Lake County sheriff’s office and the Lake County major crimes task force said authorities were using the terms “suspect” and “person of interest” interchangeably.
As of 7 p.m., no charges had been filed, and the police gave no indication of what the motive for the shootings might have been.
As news of the arrest spread, people began driving by the Highland Park police station and expressing their thanks to officers, yelling “thank you” and “good job.”
Robert E. “Bobby” Crimo III, 22.
Highland Park police department
Stacy Shaulman, a lifelong Highland Park resident, was among a few dozen people who gathered outside the police station to await Crimo’s arrival.
“It’s been a horrific day,” Shaulman said. “I’m glad they got him. And, unfortunately, he’s a Highland Park kid, and people knew his family. His family has been around a long time.”
The shooter used “a high-powered rifle” that’s been recovered, said Covelli, who said the gunman fired from a rooftop. “He was very discreet and very difficult to see.”
He called the crime “very random, very intentional.”
It appeared that the gunman had used an “unsecured” ladder to climb to the rooftop, Covelli said.
The FBI asked that anyone who had video of the shooting or possible information about the shooter call their toll-free tipline at (800) CALL-FBI.
Authorities said the ownership history of the rifle was being examined by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Lake County Coroner Jennifer Banek said five people were dead at the scene, all adults, and another died at a hospital. It wasn’t clear how old the sixth victim was. All of the victims have been identified, she said.
Dozens of the injured were taken to Highland Park Hospital, Lake Forest Hospital and Evanston Hospital. The “vast majority” were treated for gunshot wounds, though some “sustained injuries as a result of the ensuing chaos at the parade,” according to NorthShore University Health Systems, which owns the Highland Park and Evanston hospitals.
At Highland Park Hospital, Dr. Brigham Temple said 25 of the 26 people treated there were gunshot victims and that 19 of them had been treated and sent home.
Temple said they ranged in age from 8 years old to 85. About “four or five” of them are children, he said. One child was transported from there to the University of Chicago Comer Children’s Hospital, and another was transferred to Evanston Hospital.
Dr. Brigham Temple gives an update outside of Highland Park Hospital about the 26 victims who were treated there.
Brian Rich / Sun-Times
The injuries varied. “Some of them were minor,” Temple said. “Some of them were much more severe.”
“It breaks your heart to see innocents wounded,” said Dr. Mark Talamonti, a surgeon who was among those treating the injured.
At the parade scene, one witness said he counted more than 20 shots.
Miles Zaremski, a Highland Park resident, told the Chicago Sun-Times: “I heard 20 to 25 shots, which were in rapid succession. So it couldn’t have been just a handgun or a shotgun.”
Zaremski said he saw “people in that area that got shot,” including “a woman covered with blood …. She did not survive.”
Monday’s Fourth of July parade was the first in Highland Park since before the pandemic.
As panicked parade-goers fled the parade route on Central Street in downtown Highland Park, they left behind chairs, baby strollers and blankets as they sought cover, not knowing just what happened. Even as people ran, a klezmer band, seemingly unaware of the gunfire, continued to play.
Adrienne Drell, a former Sun-Times reporter, said she was sitting on a curb along Central Avenue watching the parade when she saw members of the Highland Park High School marching band start to run.
“Go to Sunset,” Drell said she heard the students shout, directing people to nearby Sunset Foods.
A man picked her up off the curb and urged her to get out, Drell said.
“There’s panic in the whole town,” she said. “Everyone is just stunned beyond belief.”
She ran across to a nearby parking lot with other people who had been watching the parade.
“It was a quiet, peaceful, lovely morning, people were enjoying the parade,” Drell said. “Within seconds, to have that peacefulness suddenly ripped apart, it’s scary. You can’t go anywhere, you can’t find peace. I think we are falling apart.”
Terrified parade-goers fled Highland Park’s Fourth of July parade after shots were fired, leaving behind their belongings as they sought safety.
Lynn Sweet / Sun-Times
Eric Trotter, 37, who lives blocks from the shooting, echoed that sentiment.
“I felt shocked,” Trotter said. “How could this happen in a peaceful community like Highland Park.”
As police cars sped by on Central Avenue, sirens blaring, Alexander Sandoval, 39, sat on a bench and cried. He’d gotten up before 7 a.m. to set up lawn chairs and a blanket in front of the main stage of the parade. He lives within walking distance from there, so he went home to have breakfast with his son, partner and stepdaughter before going back for the parade.
Hours later, he said he and his family ran after hearing the gunfire, afraid for their lives.
“We saw the Navy’s marchers and float pass by, and, when I first heard the gunshots, I thought it was them saluting the flag and shooting blanks,” Sandoval said. “But then I saw people starting to run, and the shots kept going. We started running.”
He said that, in the chaos, he and his partner Amairani Garcia ran in different directions, he with his 5-year-old son, Alex, she with her 6-year-old daughter, Melani.
“I grabbed my son and tried to break into one of the local buildings, but I couldn’t,” Sandoval said. “The shooting stopped. I guess he was reloading. So I kept running and ran into an alley and put my son in a garbage dumpster so he could be safe.”
Then, he said he ran in search of the rest of his family and saw bodies in pools of blood on the ground.
“I saw a little boy who was shot being carried away,” Sandoval said. “It was just terror.”
He found his partner and stepdaughter, safe, inside a McDonald’s nearby.
“This doesn’t happen here,” he said. “It shouldn’t happen anywhere.”
Don Johnson, 76. who lives about two blocks from the shooting scene, thought at first the gunfire was a car backfiring. He said he ran with several other people to a nearby BP gas station and described the scene as “surreal.”
“It’s just a terrible thing,” he said. “I never would’ve thought this would’ve happened in downtown Highland Park.”
Johnson said his daughter lives in Chicago with her son and that he’s been urging them to move to Highland Park, telling her recently, “It’s safe.”
Now, he said, it’s clear that “it can happen anywhere.”
David Goldenberg, the Midwest regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, was among those at the parade. He’d gone early to set up chairs for his family along the parade route. He said he ended up moving their chairs to be closer to friends.
If not for that, Goldenberg said, “We would have been awfully close” to the shooting.
“It was chaotic,” he said. “Those sorts of things that you hear about — those split-second moments accounting for everyone in your family as people are yelling, ‘There’s a shooter! There’s a gun!’ ”
He said he knows of an adult who was killed, though he declined to discuss details.
Meg Coles drove from Atlanta with her 11- and 13-year-old sons to visit her sister-in-law for the Fourth of July, a family tradition.
“I just tried to explain to them that this is rare and probably won’t happen again,” said Coles, whose family was sitting about two blocks away along the parade route when the shooting happened.
But they weren’t buying it, she said: “I think it’s going to take them awhile.”
Speaking in Highland Park Monday evening, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said: “If you are angry today, I’m here to tell you to be angry.
“I’m furious that yet more innocent lives were taken by gun violence. I’m furious that their loved ones are forever broken by what took place today.I’m furious that children and their families have been traumatized. I’m furious that this is happening in communities all across Illinois and America. While we celebrate the Fourth of July just once a year, mass shootings have become our weekly — yes, weekly — American tradition.”
In a written statement, President Joe Biden said: “Jill and I are shocked by the senseless gun violence that has yet again brought grief to an American community on this Independence Day.”
Sisters Christina Sendick, 20, and Angela Sendick, 22, showed up late for the parade, as people ran, some screaming, others bleeding. They grew up near Waukesha, Wisconsin, where someone drove a sport-utility vehicle into a Christmas parade crowd last November, killing six people and injuring 62 others.
“It’s just crazy no one can figure out how to put a stop to all this,” Angela Sendick said.
Former Obama White House adviser David Alexrod tweeted that someone he knew was at the parade, writing: “A friend took his kids to July 4th Parade in Highland Park today. His son has special needs. When shots rang out, they ran for their lives, the dad pushing his grown son’s wheelchair —which at one point tumbled over. On America’s day, what has become a sickeningly American story.”
A friend took his kids to July 4th Parade in Highland Park today. His son has special needs. When shots rang out, they ran for their lives, the dad pushing his grown son’s wheelchair–which at one point tumbled over. On America’s day, what has become a sickeningly American story.
After Crimo’s arrest, across the street from a mobile command center that the police had set up, Jerry Felsenthal, who’s lived in Highland Park for 32 years, said he worries that, with so many guns on the streets, there will be more mass shootings.
“It’s going to happen again,” Felsenthal said. “It’s inevitable.”
Contributing: Zack Miller, Frank Main, Mitchell Armentrout, Michael Loria
Around 7:30 p.m. Monday, the scene was peaceful as about 75 people were gathered just 90 minutes before a city-ordered downtown curfew was to go into effect.
By 9 p.m., the crowd had totally dispersed.
At one point Monday, Jillian Smith was the only protester in the area. Smith is the manager at Elizabeth’s Bookshop & Writing Centre in Highland Square, one of the few Black-owned bookstores in Ohio. She said the bookstore’s other employees would be joining her later.
“We specialize in carrying Black writers and marginalized writers … those books are what we need to be reading right now because those are the books that are teaching white people to unlearn (false narratives).”
Protest at Mayor Dan Horrigan’s home
That afternoon it seemed like “everybody” was outside of Mayor Dan Horrigan’s home. At least 100 armed and unarmed people were at the protest, and at least two of them were arrested. Protest organizers were making plans to bail them out of jail once the march came to an end.
The protest was organized by The Freedom Black Led Organizing Collaborative (BLOC), a local organization that aims to build Black political power and to equip the Black community with capacity-building tools on civic education, civic engagement, campaign management and leadership development.
At first protesters congregated at the intersection of Tallmadge Avenue and North Howard Street, then made their way down Howard Street to Horrigan’s home. They then returned to the Family Dollar Store on Howard Street, where the The Freedom BLOC’s executive director, Raymond Greene, gave a speech.
Contact Beacon Journal reporter Tawney Beans at tbeans@gannett.com.
WNBA star Brittney Griner, in a handwritten letter to President Joe Biden, said she fears she will be detained in Russia indefinitely and pleaded with the President not to forget about her and other American detainees.
“(As) I sit here in a Russian prison, alone with my thoughts and without the protection of my wife, family, friends, Olympic jersey, or any accomplishments, I’m terrified I might be here forever,” she wrote, according to a statement released by the communications company representing the Griner family.
Griner, 31, who has played in Russia during the WNBA’s offseason, was arrested February 17 at a Moscow airport, a week before Russia invaded Ukraine. Russian authorities claimed she had cannabis oil in her luggage and accused her of smuggling significant amounts of a narcotic substance, an offense punishable by up to 10 years in prison. She went on trial at a court near Moscow on Friday on drug smuggling charges.
Griner’s supporters and US officials say she has been wrongfully detained and have called for her release as fears mount that she is being used as a political pawn amid rising tensions between Russia and the US.
Griner’s letter to Biden, according to the statement from the communications company, was delivered to the White House on Monday morning. Three excerpts from the letter were made public, while the rest is being kept private, the statement said.
“On the 4th of July, our family normally honors the service of those who fought for our freedom, including my father who is a Vietnam War Veteran. It hurts thinking about how I usually celebrate this day because freedom means something completely different to me this year,” Griner wrote to Biden.
“I realize you are dealing with so much, but please don’t forget about me and the other American Detainees. Please do all you can to bring us home. I voted for the first time in 2020 and I voted for you. I believe in you. I still have so much good to do with my freedom that you can help restore. I miss my wife! I miss my family! I miss my teammates! It kills me to know they are suffering so much right now. I am grateful for whatever you can do at this moment to get me home.”
The White House reiterated Monday that “the Russian Federation is wrongfully detaining Brittney Griner.”
“President Biden has been clear about the need to see all U.S. nationals who are held hostage or wrongfully detained abroad released, including Brittney Griner. The U.S. government continues to work aggressively – using every available means – to bring her home,” National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a statement to CNN.
“The President’s team is in regular contact with Brittney’s family and we will continue to work to support her family,” Watson said, adding that national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Secretary of State Antony Blinken “have spoken several times with Brittney’s wife in recent weeks and the White House is closely coordinating with the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs, who has met with Brittney’s family, her teammates, and her support network.”
Griner’s wife, Cherelle, told CNN last week she wants US officials to do whatever they have to do to bring the basketball legend home – and she needs to see them do more.
In the only interview she gave on the eve of her wife’s trial in Russia, Cherelle Griner sat in the Phoenix Mercury locker room and called for more action.
“It’s really, really difficult. This is not a situation where the rhetoric is matching the action,” she said. “I do have to unfortunately push people to make sure that the things they’re telling me is also matching their actions, and so it’s been the hardest thing to balance because I can’t let up. It’s over 130 days and BG’s still not back.”
The US House of Representatives last month passed a bipartisan resolution calling on the Russian government to immediately release the WNBA star.
“Not a day goes by that we aren’t thinking of Brittney and working to get her home,” Democratic Rep. Greg Stanton of Arizona, who sponsored the resolution, said in a statement. “We will continue to push for her release and make sure that she is not forgotten.”
Stanton previously served as mayor of Phoenix, where Griner plays for the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury.
Stanton introduced the resolution in May along with Democratic Reps. Sheila Jackson Lee and Colin Allred of Texas, Griner’s home state.
“I’m grateful for this overwhelming show of support from Congress. We need to be doing all we can to keep Brittney’s case on the forefront and finally put an end to this nightmare,” Cherelle Griner said in a statement at the time.
Vanessa Nygaard, the first-year head coach for the Phoenix Mercury, reacted Monday to Griner’s letter during a news conference in Los Angeles ahead of her team’s game against the Sparks.
“It made me cry, you know, just hearing her words talking about her father being a Vietnam vet, her new perspective on freedom, her wanting to be with her family and her teammates, her not knowing if she’ll ever be free again. On our day of freedom, hearing those words from such a beloved person … It’s great, and it’s great that she was able to get that message to us and hopefully some people are paying attention to it and, of course, the Biden administration and our State Department putting that at the front of their messaging would be amazing for us,” Nygaard said.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misspelled the first name of Brittney Griner.
This story has been updated with additional reaction.
CNN’s Abby Phillip, Steve Almasy, Homero De la Fuente, Rachel Janfaza, Maegan Vazquez and Jill Martin contributed to this report.
President Biden and a handful of former presidents commemorated the Fourth of July on Monday as the United States celebrated its independence.
“The Fourth of July is a sacred day in our country – it’s a time to celebrate the goodness of our nation, the only nation on Earth founded based on an idea: that all people are created equal. Make no mistake, our best days still lie ahead,” Biden said in a tweet.
“Happy Fourth of July!!!” former President Trump wrote on his Truth Social account, also noting that “it’s not looking good for our Country right now.”
The former president pointed to high inflation, the ongoing Russian invasion in Ukraine and stock market turmoil, saying “none of these terrible events would have happened if I were President!!!”
Former President Obama used his July 4 post to urge Americans to “recommit” to fighting for democracy.
“Happy Fourth of July! As we celebrate today, let’s thank our armed forces and their families for their service to our country. And let’s recommit to fighting for our democracy—there’s still so much work to be done to perfect our union,” Obama tweeted.
The Jimmy Carter President Library, meanwhile, tweeted multicolored artwork of the Statue of Liberty.
Former President Clinton retweeted a clip of previous comments he made, in which he said, “Our democracy must be not only the envy of the world but the engine of our own renewal. There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America.”
Clinton reiterated those sentiments in a tweet including the clip.
“Like the Founders and so many generations before us, now it’s our turn to protect this great American experiment. I still believe there is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America Happy Fourth to all,” he said.
The cost of rebuilding battered Ukraine after the war is estimated at a staggering $750 billion, but some of those funds could come from the source of the damage.
Just as he has appealed to the international community for help in his country’s attempt to fend off the Russian invasion, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Switzerland a global effort will be needed for restoration.
“The reconstruction of Ukraine is not a local project, is not a project of one nation, but a common task of the entire democratic world — all countries, all countries who can say they are civilized,” Zelenskyy said in a video message. ”Restoring Ukraine means restoring the principles of life, restoring the space of life, restoring everything that makes humans humans.”
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, who attended the conference in Lugano in person, provided the $750 billion figure and presented a recovery plan for immediate and long-term needs.
Shmyhal also said a large source of funding “should be the confiscated assets of Russia and Russian oligarchs,” which he said may currently amount to between $300 billion and $500 billion.
►Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has thanked the International Olympic Committee for supporting a ban on Russian athletes in most Olympics sports. Russia has an appeal hearing Tuesday challenging its ban from international soccer at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland.
►Pope Francis, who has condemned the “ferocity” and “cruelty” of Russian troops in Ukraine, said he hopes to visit Moscow and Kyiv after his trip to Canada July 24-30.
Putin declares victory in Luhansk province, orders rest for troops
Russian President Vladimir Putin declared victory in the battle for Ukraine’s Luhansk province Monday and ordered rest for his troops before pushing on in the Kremlin’s quest to take control of the entire Donbas industrial region.
“Military units that took part in active hostilities and achieved success and victory should rest, increase their combat capabilities,” Putin said on state TV.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reported that Russian forces had taken control of Lysychansk, the last disputed major city in Luhansk. Earlier, Ukraine’s military said it was forced to withdraw in the face of Russia’s advantage in artillery, aviation, ammunition and personnel. Continuing to hold out would lead to “fatal consequences” for its troops, the military said in a Facebook post.
“We just gotta keep on fighting,” the post said. “Unfortunately, steel will and patriotism are not enough for success. Material and technical resources are needed.”
War continues to have a ‘devastating impact’ on Ukraine’s agricultural exports
Despite Russia’s claims to the contrary, its invasion is still having “a devastating impact on Ukraine’s agricultural sector,” the British Defense Ministry said in its latest intelligence assessment.
The ministry said the Russian blockade of the key port of Odesa in the Black Sea is severely limiting Ukraine’s ability to export grain while harvest has begun. In addition, the war has disrupted the supply chain of seeds and fertilizer farmers use.
That combination will most likely shrink Ukraine’s agricultural exports this year to 35% or less of what they were in 2021, the ministry said, pointing out that drastic reduction from a major wheat producer is contributing to the global food crisis.
Russian military lacks ‘accurate modern weapons’
Russia’s increasing use of outdated weaponry in a number of deadly attacks may be evidence its military lacks more precise modern weapons, military analysts say.
Russian bombers have been using 1960s-era KH-class missiles, which were primarily designed to target aircraft carriers using a nuclear warhead and are not able to accurately strike ground targets, officials say. The weapons were used in two attacks on a shopping center and apartment building last week, resulting in dozens of civilian casualties.
“Russia continues to employ air-launched anti-ship missiles in a secondary land-attack role, likely because of dwindling stockpiles of more accurate modern weapons,” the British defense ministry said on Twitter.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Three men are missing and presumed dead in California after a child was caught in a river current and they swam out in an attempt to rescue him, authorities said.
The Los Angeles Times reported Sunday that the boy was swept away at a popular boating and swimming destination called Three Mile Slough.
The delta area of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers is about 40 miles (64 kilometers) south of Sacramento.
The boy was pulled from the water and wasn’t hurt but three of his relatives were pulled under after they went in after him, said Rio Vista Battalion Chief Brandon Wilson.
People “saw them go under and never saw them come back,” Wilson said.
Authorities searched for the men for two hours in hopes of rescuing them but later transitioned to a recovery operation, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Also this weekend in California, a man drowned at Lake Berryessa in Napa County Sunday after trying to save his son as the boy struggled in the water, the Chronicle reported. The boy made it back to the shore safely.
And a 13-year-old girl drowned Sunday off the shore of a lake in Madera County, the Fresno Bee reported on Monday.
Six people were killed and dozens wounded when a gunman used a high-powered rifle to fire from a rooftop on people attending the Highland Park Fourth of July parade Monday.
Authorities continued to hunt late Monday afternoon for the shooter, and “the offender still has not been apprehended so far,” Christopher Covelli of the Lake County sheriff’s office and the Lake County major crimes task force said at a news conference hours after the shooting.
The gunman used “a high-powered rifle” that’s been recovered, Covelli said, and he fired from a rooftop. “He was very discreet and very difficult to see.”
He called the crime “very random, very intentional.”
It appeared that the gunman had used an “unsecured” ladder to climb to the rooftop, Covelli said.
The FBI asked that anyone who had video of the shooting or possible information about the shooter call their toll-free tipline at (800) CALL-FBI.
Investigators were focusing their manhunt around downtown Highland Park in an area bounded by Green Bay Road, Laurel Avenue, St. John’s Avenue and Elm Place, according to Highland Park police Cmdr. Chris O’Neill. People outside that area no longer were being asked to shelter in place.
Covelli said drones and dogs were being used in an effort to track down the suspect and that the ownership history of the rifle is being examined by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Lake County Coroner Jennifer Banek said five people were dead at the scene, all adults, and another died at a hospital. It wasn’t clear how old the sixth victim was.
All of the victims have been identified, though authorities still were notifying families as of 3:30 p.m.
Dozens of the injured were taken to Highland Park Hospital, Lake Forest Hospital and Evanston Hospital. The “vast majority” were treated for gunshot wounds, though some “sustained injuries as a result of the ensuing chaos at the parade,” according to NorthShore University Health Systems, which owns the Highland Park and Evanston hospitals.
At Highland Park Hospital, Dr. Brigham Temple said 25 of the 26 people treated there were gunshot victims and that 19 of them had been treated and sent home.
Temple said they ranged in age from 8 years old to 85. About “four or five” of them are children, he said. One child was transported from there to the University of Chicago Comer Children’s Hospital.
The injuries varied. “Some of them were minor,” Temple said. “Some of them were much more severe.”
“It breaks your heart to see innocents wounded,” said Dr. Mark Talamonti, a surgeon who was among those treating the injured at Highland Park Hospital.
At the parade scene, one witness said he counted more than 20 shots.
Miles Zaremski, a Highland Park resident, told the Chicago Sun-Times: “I heard 20 to 25 shots, which were in rapid succession. So it couldn’t have been just a handgun or a shotgun.”
Zaremski said he saw “people in that area that got shot,” including “a woman covered with blood . . . She did not survive.”
As they fled the parade route on Central Street in downtown Highland Park, panicked parade-goers left behind chairs, baby strollers and blankets as they sought cover, not knowing just what happened. Even as people ran, a klezmer band, seemingly unaware of the gunfire, continued to play.
O’Neill said that the suspect appeared to be 18 to 20 years old, white and wearing a blue T-shirt.
Adrienne Drell, a former Sun-Times reporter, said she was sitting on a curb along Central Avenue watching the parade when she saw members of the Highland Park High School marching band start to run.
“Go to Sunset,” Drell said she heard the students shout, directing people to nearby Sunset Foods.
A man picked her up off the curb and urged her to get out, Drell said.
“There’s panic in the whole town,” she said. “Everyone is just stunned beyond belief.”
She ran across to a nearby parking lot with other people who had been watching the parade.
“It was a quiet, peaceful, lovely morning, people were enjoying the parade,” Drell said. “Within seconds, to have that peacefulness suddenly ripped apart, it’s scary. You can’t go anywhere, you can’t find peace. I think we are falling apart.”
Terrified parade-goers fled Highland Park’s Fourth of July parade after shots were fired, leaving behind their belongings as they sought safety.
Lynn Sweet / Sun-Times
Eric Trotter, 37, who lives blocks from the shooting, echoed that sentiment.
“I felt shocked,” Trotter said. “How could this happen in a peaceful community like Highland Park.”
As police cars sped by on Central Avenue, sirens blaring, Alexander Sandoval, 39, sat on a bench and cried. He’d gotten up before 7 a.m. to set up lawn chairs and a blanket in front of the main stage of the parade. He lives within walking distance from there, so he went home to have breakfast with his son, partner and stepdaughter before going back for the parade.
Hours later, he said he and his family ran after hearing the gunfire, afraid for their lives.
“We saw the Navy’s marchers and float pass by, and, when I first heard the gunshots, I thought it was them saluting the flag and shooting blanks,” Sandoval said. “But then I saw people starting to run, and the shots kept going. We started running.”
He said that, in the chaos, he and his partner Amairani Garcia ran in different directions, he with his 5-year-old son Alex, she with her 6-year-old daughter Melani.
“I grabbed my son and tried to break into one of the local buildings, but I couldn’t,” Sandoval said. “The shooting stopped. I guess he was reloading. So I kept running and ran into an alley and put my son in a garbage dumpster so he could be safe.”
Then, he said he ran in search of the rest of his family and saw bodies in pools of blood on the ground.
“I saw a little boy who was shot being carried away,” Sandoval said. “It was just terror.”
He found his partner and stepdaughter, safe, inside a McDonald’s nearby.
“This doesn’t happen here,” he said. “It shouldn’t happen anywhere.”
Don Johnson, 76. who lives about two blocks from the shooting scene, thought at first the gunfire was a car backfiring. He said he ran with several other people to a nearby BP gas station and described the scene as “surreal.”
“It’s just a terrible thing,” he said. “I never would’ve thought this would’ve happened in downtown Highland Park.”
Johnson said his daughter lives in Chicago with her son and that he’s been urging them to move to Highland Park, telling her recently, “It’s safe.”
Now, he said, it’s clear that “it can happen anywhere.”
David Goldenberg, the Midwest regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, was among those at the parade. He’d gone early to set up chairs for his family along the parade route. He said he ended up moving their chairs to be closer to friends.
If not for that, Goldenberg said, “We would have been awfully close” to the shooting.
“It was chaotic,” he said. “Those sorts of things that you hear about — those split-second moments accounting for everyone in your family as people are yelling, ‘There’s a shooter! There’s a gun!’ ”
He said he knows of an adult who was killed, though he declined to discuss details.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker called on “all Illinoisans to pray for the families who have been devastated by the evil unleashed this morning in Highland Park, for those who have lost loved ones and for those who have been injured.
“There are no words for the kind of monster who lies in wait and fires into a crowd of families with children celebrating a holiday with their community. There are no words for the kind of evil that robs our neighbors of their hopes, their dreams, their futures.
“We must — and we will — end this plague of gun violence.”
Responding to the Highland Park shooting, President Joe Biden said in a written statement: “Jill and I are shocked by the senseless gun violence that has yet again brought grief to an American community on this Independence Day.”
Sisters Christina Sendick, 20, and Angela Sendick, 22, showed up late for the parade, as people ran, some screaming, others bleeding. They grew up near Waukesha, Wis., where someone drove a sport-utility vehicle into a Christmas parade crowd last November, killing six people and injuring 62 others.
“It’s just crazy no one can figure out how to put a stop to all this,” Angela Sendick said.
Former Obama White House adviser David Alexrod tweeted that someone he knew was at the parade, writing: “A friend took his kids to July 4th Parade in Highland Park today. His son has special needs. When shots rang out, they ran for their lives, the dad pushing his grown son’s wheelchair —which at one point tumbled over. On America’s day, what has become a sickeningly American story.”
A friend took his kids to July 4th Parade in Highland Park today. His son has special needs. When shots rang out, they ran for their lives, the dad pushing his grown son’s wheelchair–which at one point tumbled over. On America’s day, what has become a sickeningly American story.
Five people were killed and 16 others wounded when a gunman started shooting 10 minutes after the Highland Park Fourth of July parade kicked off Monday morning, authorities said.
Shortly after noon, the Highland Park police said it remained an “active incident” and urged people to stay away.
A Chicago Sun-Times reporter saw blankets covering three bloodied bodies and five other people wounded and bloodied near the parade’s reviewing stand.
Several witnesses said they heard multiple shots fired. One witness said he counted more than 20 shots.
Miles Zaremski, a Highland Park resident, told the Sun-Times: “I heard 20 to 25 shots, which were in rapid succession. So it couldn’t have been just a handgun or a shotgun.”
Zaremski said he saw “people in that area that got shot,” including “a woman covered with blood . . . She did not survive.”
Police were telling people: “Everybody disperse, please. It is not safe to be here.”
As they fled the parade route on Central Street in downtown Highland Park, panicked parade-goers left behind chairs, baby strollers and blankets as they sought cover, not knowing just what happened. Even as people ran, a klezmer band, seemingly unaware of the gunfire, continued to play.
Police from Highland Park and several other jurisdictions, including the Illnois State Police, some armed with rifles, were patrolling the area, looking for whoever fired the shots.
Adrienne Drell, a former Sun-Times reporter, said she was sitting on a curb along Central Avenue watching the parade when she saw members of the Highland Park High School marching band start to run.
“Go to Sunset,” Drell said she heard the students shout, directing people to nearby Sunset Foods.
A man picked her up off the curb and urged her to get out, Drell said.
“There’s panic in the whole town,” she said. “Everyone is just stunned beyond belief.”
She ran across to a nearby parking lot with other people who had been watching the parade.
“It was a quiet, peaceful, lovely morning, people were enjoying the parade,” Drell said. “Within seconds, to have that peacefulness suddenly ripped apart, it’s scary. You can’t go anywhere, you can’t find peace. I think we are falling apart.”
Terrified parade-goers fled Highland Park’s Fourth of July parade after shots were fired, leaving behind their belongings as they sought safety.
Lynn Sweet / Sun-Times
Eric Trotter, 37, who lives blocks from the shooting, echoed that sentiment.
“I felt shocked,” Trotter said. “How could this happen in a peaceful community like Highland Park.”
As police cars sped by on Central Avenue, sirens blaring, Alexander Sandoval, 39, sat on a bench and cried. He’d gotten up before 7 a.m. to set up lawn chairs and a blanket in front of the main stage of the parade. He lives walking distance from there, so he went home to have breakfast with his son, partner and stepdaughter before going back for the parade.
Hours later, he said he and his family ran after hearing the gunfire, afraid for their lives.
“We saw the Navy’s marchers and float pass by, and, when I first heard the gunshots, I thought it was them saluting the flag and shooting blanks,” Sandoval said. “But then I saw people starting to run, and the shots kept going. We started running.”
He said that, in the chaos, he and his partner ran in different directions, he with his son, she with her daughter.
“I grabbed my son and tried to break in to one of the local buildings, but I couldn’t,” Sandoval said. “The shooting stopped. I guess he was reloading. So I kept running and ran in to an alley and put my son in a garbage dumpster so he could be safe.”
Then, he said he ran in search of the rest of his family and saw bodies in pools of blood on the ground.
“i saw a little boy who was shot being carried away,” Sandoval said. “It was just terror.”
He found his partner and stepdaughter, safe, inside a McDonald’s nearby.
“This doesn’t happen here,” he said. “It shouldn’t happen anywhere.”
Gov. J.B. Pritzker said he was “closely monitoring the situation in Highland Park” and that the Illinois State Police were on the scene.
The parade had a heavy presence of police and fire vehicles.
Blood pooled at Port Clinton Square in Highland Park.
Lynn Sweet/ Sun-Times
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
The city of Lysychansk has been heavily damaged by fighting. Ukrainian forces said Sunday they had withdrawn from the city, leaving the region of Luhansk in Russian hands.
Aris Messinis/AFP via Getty Images
hide caption
toggle caption
Aris Messinis/AFP via Getty Images
The city of Lysychansk has been heavily damaged by fighting. Ukrainian forces said Sunday they had withdrawn from the city, leaving the region of Luhansk in Russian hands.
Aris Messinis/AFP via Getty Images
Russia says it now controls Ukraine’s Luhansk region, one of the two eastern regions that have been the focus of its invasion of Ukraine.
The announcement comes after Ukrainian troops withdrew from Lysychansk, an industrial city that had become the last major Ukrainian-controlled holdout in the region.
Together, Russian troops and a Russian-backed separatist militia “have established full control” over the city, a statement from Russia’s defense ministry said. It represents “the liberation of the Luhansk People’s Republic,” the statement said, using the separatists’ name for the self-proclaimed breakaway state.
Ukrainian troops had held out in this pocket of Luhansk for months, first in Sievierodonetsk, then Lysychansk. But with Russian troops pressing in on three sides, they faced the risk of encirclement and withdrew to the east, according to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
“Continuing the defense of the city would have led to fatal consequences. In order to preserve the lives of Ukrainian defenders, a decision was made to withdraw,” the armed forces said in a statement on Facebook.
The Russians had superiority in multiple facets of the fight, Ukrainian officials said, from artillery and air force to ammunition and personnel.
After the fall of nearby Sievierodonetsk late last month, Lysychansk had become the last major city under Ukrainian control in Luhansk, the easternmost region of Ukraine. Just a week ago, Serhiy Haidai, the exiled Luhansk regional governor, urged the city’s residents to evacuate.
“They attacked the city with unexplainably brutal tactics,” Haidai said over the weekend in a post on Telegram. “If in Sievierodonetsk, some houses and administrative buildings survived through a month of street fighting, then in Lysychansk the same administrative buildings were completely destroyed in a shorter period of time.”
What the retreat from Lysychansk represents for Ukraine
Luhansk and Donetsk make up eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region, where violence has been ongoing since long before Russia’s invasion in February. Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian forces have fought since 2014, after Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea.
On Feb. 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin set the stage for the full-scale invasion by recognizing separatist-controlled areas in Luhansk and Donetsk as independent and ordering Russian military forces there under what he called a “peacekeeping” mission.
In the months since, Russia scaled back the ambitions of its invasion and refocused its military efforts on eastern Ukraine, with parts of Donbas seeing the most intense fighting of the year so far.
Now, with Luhansk largely in Russian hands, the neighboring region of Donetsk could soon follow.
The last two Ukrainian-held major cities in Donetsk — Kramatorsk and Slovyansk — are just about 50 miles from Lysychansk. The other major cities in Donetsk, including Donetsk itself, along with Mariupol, have been controlled by Russians or Russian-backed forces for some time.
If they fall, then the entire Donbas region would be effectively controlled by Russia — amounting to a demonstrable victory for Putin in a war that by all indications has dragged out longer than the Kremlin initially expected.
Putin has long prized the coal and steel-producing Donbas, which has a predominantly Russian-speaking population. The full capture would give Russia a strategic victory as well, expanding its control over Ukraine’s southeast and further cementing the “land bridge” between Russian territory and Crimea.
At least three people were killed when a gunman opened fire in a Copenhagen shopping mall Sunday, police said. Several others were wounded, including three who are in critical condition, police inspector Søren Thomassen said.
The suspect, who is in custody, is a 22-year-old Danish man who was detained near the Fields shopping mall, said Thomassen, head of the Copenhagen police operations unit.
Thomassen said the three victims were a man in his 40s and “two young people.”
Earlier Sunday, Thomassen said it was too early to speculate on a motive but said that terror couldn’t be immediately ruled out. He noted police “do not have information that others are involved. This is what we know now.”
Police said later Sunday that the suspect was in possession of a rifle and ammunition when he was arrested. He is charged with manslaughter and is expected to appear before a judge on Monday.
He said police received the first reports of a shooting at 5:37 p.m. local time, and arrested the suspect 11 minutes later. Thomassen described the suspect as an “ethnic Dane,” a phrase typically used to mean someone is white.
Danish broadcaster TV2 published a grainy photo of the alleged gunman, a man wearing knee-length shorts, a vest or sleeveless shirt, and holding what appeared to be a rifle in his right hand. “He seemed very violent and angry,” eyewitness Mahdi Al-Wazni told TV2. “He spoke to me and said it (the rifle) isn’t real as I was filming him. He seemed very proud of what he was doing.”
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said the Scandinavian country had been hit by a “cruel attack.”
“It is incomprehensible. Heartbreaking. Pointless,” she said. “Our beautiful and usually so safe capital was changed in a split second.”
Images from the scene showed people running out of the mall, and Denmark’s TV2 broadcaster posted a photo of a man being put on a stretcher. Witnesses said people were crying and hid in shops.
People leave a shopping center after Danish police said they received reports of a shooting in Copenhagen on July 3, 2022.
Ritzau Scanpix/Olafur Steinar Gestsson via REUTERS
Laurits Hermansen told Danish broadcaster DR that he was in a clothing store at the shopping center with his family when he heard “three, four bangs. Really loud bangs. It sounded like the shots were being fired just next to the store.”
The shopping center is on the outskirts of Copenhagen just across from a subway station for a line that connects the city center with the international airport. A major highway also runs adjacent to the mall.
A concert by former One Direction band member Harry Styles that had been scheduled to be held Sunday night at the nearby Royal Arena was canceled.
“I’m heartbroken along with the people of Copenhagen. I adore this city. The people are so warm and full of love. I’m devastated for the victims, their families, and everyone hurting,” Styles tweeted. “I’m sorry we couldn’t be together. Please look after each other. H.”
The royal palace said a reception with Crown Prince Frederik connected to the Tour de France cycling race had been canceled. The first three stages of the race were held in Denmark this year. The reception was due to be held on the royal yacht that is moored in Soenderborg, the town where the third stage ended.
In a joint statement, Queen Margrethe, her son Crown Prince Frederik and his wife, Crown Princess Mary, said: “We do not yet know the full extent of the tragedy, but it is already clear that more people have lost their lives and that even more have been injured.”
“The situation calls for unity and care,” they said in a statement.
WASHINGTON – Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., vice chair of the Jan. 6 committee, said Sunday, that it’s possible that there could be multiple criminal referrals against former President Donald Trump in connection with the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.
She told ABC News’ “This Week” that while the Jan. 6 committee will decide whether Trump should face charges, the Justice Department could make a criminal referral without waiting for the committee, adding that there “could be more than one criminal referral.”
Cheney said she was more worried about not holding people accountable than about what it means for a country for a former president to be prosecuted.
“I think it’s a much graver constitutional threat if a president can engage in these kinds of activities and, you know, the majority of the president’s party looks away or we as a country decide, you know, we’re not actually going to take our constitutional obligations seriously. I think that’s a much – a much more serious threat,” she said.
Cheney’s comments come days after former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson gave shocking testimony during Tuesday’s hearing. Hutchinson said Trump knew some in the crowd at his “Stop the Steal” rally on Jan. 6, 2021, was armed, and he directed that armed mob to the U.S. Capitol.
Cheney applauded Hutchinson for coming forward and testifying.
“What Cassidy Hutchinson did was an unbelievable example of bravery and of courage and patriotism in the face of real pressure,” she said.
When asked about critics saying that Hutchinson was not telling the truth, Cheney said that “the committee is not going to stand by and watch her character be assassinated by anonymous sources and by men who are claiming executive privilege.”
Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., another member of the January 6 committee, said on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday that more witnesses have come forward following Hutchinson’s testimony.
Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren, of California also a member of the committee, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday that she “expected Trump would try to discredit” Hutchinson, as she gave her testimony.
“She has nothing to gain by stepping forward and telling the truth. And Trump world has everything to lose by the truth,” Lofgren said.
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” that the next hearing will be focused “on the efforts to assemble that mob on the Mall, who was participating, who was financing it, how it was organized, including the participation of these white nationalist groups like the Proud Boys, the Three Percenters and others.”
The next committee hearing has not been announced.
July 3 (Reuters) – Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) founder Jeff Bezos renewed his spat with the White House over the weekend, as the world’s third-richest person criticized President Joe Biden for calling on companies running gasoline stations to lower their prices.
In a tweet on Saturday, Biden said, “this is a time of war and global peril,” and demanded the companies lower gasoline prices, which have soared to about $5 a gallon in many parts of the country.
“Bring down the price you are charging at the pump to reflect the cost you’re paying for the product. And do it now,” the president said.
Bezos soon after wrote on Twitter: “Ouch. Inflation is far too important a problem for the White House to keep making statements like this. It’s either straight ahead misdirection or a deep misunderstanding of basic market dynamics.”
On Sunday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre rejected the criticism from Bezos, arguing that oil prices had dropped by about $15 a barrel in the past month while prices at the pump had “barely” fallen.
“But I guess it’s not surprising that you think oil and gas companies using market power to reap record profits at the expense of the American people is the way our economy is supposed to work,” she wrote on Twitter.
Bezos has locked horns with Biden’s administration in the past. In May, he accused Biden of misleading the public and blamed his administration for a spike in inflation. read more
California Gov. Gavin Newsom is running ads in Florida over the Fourth of July weekend attacking the Republican Party.
Driving the news: The Democratic governor, who is running for reelection in California, encouraged Floridians to join him in California.
What he’s saying: “Freedom is under attack in your state,” Newsom said in the advertisement. “Your Republican leaders, they’re banning books, making it harder to vote, restricting speech in classrooms, even criminalizing women and doctors.”
“I urge all of you living in Florida to join the fight or join us in California where we still believe in freedom — freedom of speech, freedom to choose, freedom from hate and the freedom to love,” he added. “Don’t let them take your freedom.”
This is a widget area - If you go to "Appearance" in your WP-Admin you can change the content of this box in "Widgets", or you can remove this box completely under "Theme Options"
