‘We can’t keep living like this’: Michigan governor denounces campus shooting

Gretchen Whitmer calls for action on ‘uniquely American problem’ after gunman kills three Michigan State students and wounds five

The governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer, denounced the “uniquely American problem” of gun violence on Tuesday, after a gunman murdered three students in a mass shooting at Michigan State University the night before.

Whitmer spoke at a press conference in East Lansing at which authorities identified the shooter, who died by suicide, and revealed other details about the attack that left five students critically wounded.

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California senator Dianne Feinstein, 89, announces she will not seek re-election

Feinstein, who has sat in US Senate since 1992, sets off race among Democrats to succeed to vacant seat

Dianne Feinstein , the 89-year-old senator from California who has served in the chamber for three decades, said she will not seek re-election in 2024.

“I am announcing today I will not run for re-election in 2024 but intend to accomplish as much for California as I can through the end of next year when my term ends,” Feinstein said in a statement.

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Hunt for mysterious object shot down in remote Yukon faces daunting odds

The Canadian territory is an aircraft graveyard – now the difficult search is on for a downed unidentified craft in its vast environs

The rugged, “unpeopled” landscape of Canada’s Yukon territory is a graveyard for aircraft, with more than 500 planes crashing in its forests, mountains and lakes over the years.

Now, Canada’s military and police, alongside their US counterparts, are searching the unforgiving landscape in midwinter for a mysterious object recently shot on Saturday by a fighter plane.

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US officials arrest four more people over assassination of Haitian president

Suspects include the owner of a Miami-area security company that hired ex-Colombian soldiers for the mission, DoJ says

US authorities have arrested four more people in the assassination of the Haitian president Jovenel Moïse, including the owner of a Miami-area security company that hired ex-Colombian soldiers for the mission, the justice department announced on Tuesday.

Antonio “Tony” Intriago, owner of CTU Security, is charged with conspiracy to kill or kidnap a person outside the US among other charges, along with company representative Arcangel Pretel Ortiz.

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Wienermobile in a pickle after falling victim to catalytic converter thieves

The Oscar Mayer crew didn’t relish their time in Las Vegas after the vehicle had to be towed to an auto body shop

One of the US’s most easily recognizable vehicles is back on the road after it fell victim to a crime that has grown more common in recent years: catalytic converter theft. While parked in Las Vegas ahead of a Super Bowl weekend appearance, the Wienermobile, a 27ft-long bright yellow-and-red hotdog on wheels, was disabled after someone took the vehicle’s hardware.

The Wienermobile is actually a fleet of six vehicles used as a promotional tool for the celebrated Wisconsin-based hotdog brand Oscar Mayer. The Wienermobiles are driven across the nation by “hotdoggers” who claim the job for a one-year assignment. The morning after the converter was taken, the Wienermobile was towed to a nearby auto repair shop where mechanics installed a temporary converter that would allow the Wienermobile’s crew to drive it.

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Three people killed in shooting on Michigan State University campus

Suspected shooter found dead off-campus with self-inflicted gunshot wound

At least three people were killed and several more injured in a shooting at Michigan State University, according to campus police. The suspected attacker died from what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

University police tweeted on Monday that shots were fired in two locations: near an academic building called Berkey Hall and an athletic facility known as IM East.

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Republican senator Tim Scott preparing presidential run – report

Only Black Republican in Senate set to challenge Donald Trump for nomination, Wall Street Journal says

South Carolina senator Tim Scott is reportedly taking steps to seek the Republican presidential nomination in 2024.

Reporting the news, the Wall Street Journal cited anonymous sources “familiar with his plans”. Jennifer DeCasper, a senior adviser, said the senator was “excited to share his vision of hope and opportunity and hear the American people’s response”.

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‘Significant’ debris from China spy balloon retrieved, says US military

Sensors and electronics pulled from waters off South Carolina, says military, after White House says Beijing’s surveillance program dates back years

The US military has recovered “significant debris” from a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon shot down this month, the Pentagon has said, after the White House claimed China had been operating a high-altitude balloon program spying on the US and its allies for many years.

The US Northern Command said in a statement: “Crews have been able to recover significant debris from the site, including all of the priority sensor and electronics pieces identified as well as large sections of the structure.”

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Biden administration forming team to study unidentified aerial objects – as it happened

US will have its experts try to understand unknown objects, including broader policy implications, says John Kirby

“I told you so”.

That’s more or less what Republican senator Marco Rubio has to say about the three downings of unidentified objects over North American skies over the weekend:

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Kansas City Chiefs face new call to drop ‘insulting’ name and symbol

Group gathered outside Arizona stadium to protest the team’s name and the insulting gesture and chant performed by its fans

The Kansas City Chiefs may have won the Super Bowl in an epic game, but for some there will be no victory until the football team changes its name and symbol and its fans stop performing an insulting gesture and chant.

A small but loud group protested outside the stadium hosting the Super Bowl in Arizona on Sunday, aggrieved that the team from the city that straddles the Kansas-Missouri border continues to refuse to drop its name and arrowhead symbol, which Native American leaders class as a racist mascot and symbol that devalues Native traditions.

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United flight from Hawaii plunged to within 800ft of Pacific Ocean

Plane heading for San Francisco took steep dive shortly after takeoff in dramatic incident in mid-December

A United flight from Maui to San Francisco plummeted to less than 800ft above the Pacific Ocean shortly after takeoff in December, an apparent near crash and previously unreported safety incident revealed by airline industry publication the Air Current.

Flight tracking data analysis revealed that the Boeing 777-200 had reached an altitude of roughly 2,200ft when it began a steep dive, descending at a rate of about 8,600ft a minute. After dipping below 775ft, the flight recovered altitude and traveled to San Francisco without further issue.

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Georgia grand jury report on Trump election pressure to be partially released

Judge ruled certain sections will be made public this week, including one involving witnesses who may have lied under oath

Portions of a Georgia grand jury’s report on whether Donald Trump and allies committed crimes when they tried to overturn the 2020 election will be made public this week, but the entirety of the report will remain secret until the Fulton county prosecutor decides whether to bring charges, a judge ruled on Monday.

The sections that will be made public are the report’s introduction, conclusion and a section discussing whether some of the witnesses who testified before the special purpose grand jury lied under oath. The section does not identify which witnesses may have lied.

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UK fighter jets always on standby, Sunak says after US shoots down objects

Prime minister will do ‘everything it takes’ to keep country safe as Britain conducts security review

UK fighter jets are on standby to shoot down Chinese spy balloons if any are spotted in British air space, the prime minister has said.

Rishi Sunak said Typhoon planes were ready at all times in case the UK came under threat from balloons such as the one US officials said they shot down last week.

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Chinese foreign ministry says US also flies balloons over China

Spokesperson says US overreacting and claims it has made at least 10 airspace incursions since start of 2022

China’s foreign ministry has accused the US of flying high-altitude balloons over its airspace more than 10 times since the beginning of last year, as the dispute over surveillance between the two countries continues.

A spokesperson told foreign reporters at a regular press briefing in Beijing that it was “not uncommon” for the US to go into other countries’ airspace, claiming they were aware of at least 10 incursions over China, but gave few other details.

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‘Octagonal’ flying object shot down in Michigan | First Thing

Military general says he will not rule out any explanation as fourth object this month is downed over North America. Plus, is Florida running out of orange juice?

Good morning.

The US military has shot down a third flying object in North American airspace in three days, as the air force general overseeing the airspace said he would not rule out any explanation for the objects yet.

What was the object? Gen Glen VanHerck, who is tasked with safeguarding US airspace, said the military had not been able to identify what the three most recent objects were, how they stayed aloft, or where they were coming from.

What was the fourth flying object to be shot down in North America? On Saturday an object about the size of a small car was downed over Yukon in Canada.

What else is happening? A US resident from Pakistan has anonymously donated $30m to victims of the earthquake, according to officials. Word of the businessman’s kindness has provided a rare instance of uplifting news amid the mounting toll of death and damage.

Why did so many people die in Turkey? In 1999, more than 17,000 people were killed in an earthquake near the Turkish city of Istanbul. In the aftermath, authorities promised stricter building regulations and introduced an “earthquake tax” aimed at improving preparedness in a country that sits on two major geological faultlines. The current death toll for this earthquake suggests lessons of 1999 were not learned.

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Super Bowl LVII: Kansas City Chiefs v Philadelphia Eagles – live

Win or lose, this promises to be a huge game for Philadelphia. Well, assuming that the local population actually has a chance to watch the game in question. Reports are currently spreading of a particularly ill-timed cable/internet outage in the area.

Preamble

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US shoots down ‘octagonal’ flying object near military sites in Michigan

Military general says he will not rule out any explanation as fourth object is downed over North America this month

The US military has shot down a third flying object over North American airspace in three days, as the air force general overseeing the airspace said he would not rule out any explanation for the objects yet.

The high-altitude unidentified object, described as an “octagonal structure” with strings attached to it, was shot down over Lake Huron in Michigan on Sunday.

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Mars Wrigley fined after two workers tumbled into chocolate tank last year

Federal workplace authorities fined the popular Pennsylvania candy factory $14,500 and categorized citation as ‘serious’

US federal workplace authorities have fined a popular Pennsylvania candy factory more than $14,500 after two of its employees fell into a large tub of chocolate last year.

In a scene that seemingly could have come straight out of Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, two workers last June landed in the tub at the Mars Wrigley factory in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania. Neither of the two workers had any injuries when the sticky situation unfolded as they did maintenance work and tumbled into a tank that was partially filled with chocolate.

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Schumer says Chinese ‘humiliated’ after three flying objects shot down

‘Chinese were caught lying',’ says Senate majority leader as US and Canadian military scramble to recover pieces

US and Canadian military are continuing to search by sea and land amid hostile weather conditions in a scramble to recover portions of three flying objects shot down over North American airspace in the past week.

The Democratic majority leader of the US Senate, Chuck Schumer, told ABC’s This Week on Sunday that he had been briefed by the White House and that officials were now convinced that all three of the flying objects brought down by air-to-air missiles this week were balloons. He put the finger of blame firmly on China.

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Mississippi sees 900% rise in number of infants born with congenital syphilis

Medical professionals attribute the increasing cases of disease to inadequate prenatal healthcare and understaffed workforce

Mississippi has registered an alarming rise in the number of infants being treated for congenital syphilis.

According to hospital billing data shared with NBC, the amount of babies who have been treated for the sexually transmitted disease has increased by more than 900% over five years.

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