Hours after a man opened fire on Monday night at two locations at Michigan State University, killing at least three students and injuring at least five, a 21-year-old student at the school posted a TikTok video to share that this was not the first mass shooting she'd survived.
"Ten years and two months ago I survived the Sandy Hook shooting," said Jackie Matthews, describing crouching in a corner with her classmates while a gunman fatally shot 20 first-graders and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
"I am 21 years old," Matthews said. "The fact that this is the second mass shooting that I have now lived through is incomprehensible."
Matthews described the physical manifestation of the trauma left by surviving the Sandy Hook massacre, one of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history.
"I now have a full-blown PTSD fracture [in my lower back] that flares up any time I am in a stressful situation," she said.
Timereported that a number of other students on campus were survivors of a 2021 shooting at Oxford High School in Oxford Township, Michigan. U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), who visited the campus, told the magazine that she had seen a number of students wearing shirts that read, "Oxford Strong," which were given to them after the shooting.
"I'll forever be Sandy Hook Strong," said Matthews, "and I'll forever be Spartan Strong."
"We've let down generations of children by letting this continue."
The Michigan State shooting followed the recent release of a study by gun control advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety about survivors of gun violence.
Fifty-nine percent of U.S. adults now report that they or someone they know have experienced gun violence in their lifetime. More than 40% of those who have had personal experiences with gun violence say they have trauma as a result.
"The impact of gun violence extends beyond those who are wounded or killed," said Everytown. "The families, communities, and anyone with a personal experience of gun violence in their lifetime are also survivors of gun violence."
Matthews expressed solidarity with the families and friends of the three people who were killed Monday night at the school.
"But we can no longer just provide love and prayers," she said. "There needs to be legislation. There needs to be action. It's not okay. We can no longer allow this to happen. We cannot longer be complacent."
After a mass shooting in Buffalo, New York last year, President Joe Biden signed the first major gun safety legislation passed by Congress in nearly three decades. The law incentivized states to pass "red flag laws" that would help law enforcement to take guns away from people deemed a threat to others or themselves, and expanded background checks on gun purchasers between the ages of 18 and 21.
The law did not include universal background checks, which have the support of more than 90% of Americans, or a ban on assault weapons.
"We've let down generations of children by letting this continue," said progressive advocacy group Indivisible Michigan in response to Matthews' video. "We must act NOW."
Following a late Monday night shooting that killed three Michigan State University students and injured five more — mere miles from the state’s Capital of Lansing — Democratic lawmakers are vowing to deliver more than empty words in order to prevent another tragedy.
“F—k your thoughts and prayers,” reads the opening line of a late-night statement from House Majority Whip Ranjeev Puri (D-Canton).
“ … Thoughts and prayers without action and change are meaningless. Our office will continue to work tirelessly to pass common sense gun reform immediately. We will not stop until our students can attend school without fear, our communities can attend places of worship in peace, and our society is safe from senseless gun violence.”
State Rep. Kelly Breen (D-Novi) echoed Puri’s sentiments in a tweet, writing: “Policy & change. F—k your thoughts and prayers. I will not mince words.”
Again I will be very clear: Policy & change. Fuck your thoughts and prayers.
I will not mince words. I echo
@RanjeevPuri's sentiments. Children are dead. Anyone offended at my language and NOT that kids are in a morgue can piss off.
More to come. Bank on it.
https://t.co/THiG5AdGRG
— Kelly Breen (@VoteKellyBreen)
February 14, 2023
Democrats hold slim majorities in both the House and Senate. For the first time in about 40 years, they have a governing trifecta along with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and have vowed to take action on gun control measures that have long stalled in Michigan, such as safe storage and so-called “red flag” laws.
The gunman, Anthony McRae, who police said is not affiliated with the university, opened fire in MSU’s Berkey Hall at 8:18 p.m. Two students were killed there.
The suspect then moved next door to the MSU student union and opened fire again, where another student was killed.
MSU Police on Tuesday afternoon released the names of two of the students killed: Brian Fraser, a sophomore from Grosse Pointe, and Alexandria Verner, a junior from Clawson. Police said they would not be releasing the third victim’s name at this time out of respect for the family’s wishes.
Five more injured victims — all students — are still in critical condition as of Tuesday morning, and four have required surgical intervention at Lansing’s Sparrow Hospital.
MSU classes are canceled until Monday, Feb. 20.
“I am angry that the safety and security of Michigan State University has been shattered by the uniquely American scourge of gun violence,” said House Speaker Joe Tate (D-Detroit), who graduated from MSU.
“ … This is not a new phenomenon, and the people who elected us to help lead the state have no patience for inaction. … We have a choice. We can continue to debate the reasons for gun violence in America, or we can act. We cannot continue to do the same thing over and over again and hope for a different outcome,” Tate said.
There have so far been 67 mass shootings nationwide in the first 45 days of 2023 alone.
McRae, 43, was found by law enforcement roughly three hours after the shooting in East Lansing. After being confronted, police say he fatally shot himself.
Whitmer, an MSU alum who ordered U.S. and Michigan flags across the state to be lowered to half-staff until further notice on Tuesday, said in statements Tuesday morning that “the whole state of Michigan is wrapping its arms around the Spartan community today.”
“This is a uniquely American problem. Too many of us scan rooms for exits when we enter them. We plan who that last text or call would go to. We should not, we cannot, accept living like this,” Whitmer said.
She and U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Lansing) spoke at the MSU police briefing Tuesday morning.
Law enforcement have so far not been able to find a motive for the shooting. According to the Detroit News, McRae was charged with multiple gun-related crimes in 2019.
Attorney General Dana Nessel has twin sons who attend MSU. She told CNN on Tuesday that one of them had just left one of the locations on campus shortly before shots were fired.
“As a parent, there is no greater fear than having your child tell you there is an active shooter at their school. I experienced this terror along with thousands of other MSU families last night,” Nessel said in a statement. “While my Spartan sons are safe, I am mourning the devastating loss and senseless violence. The events at Michigan State University are a tragedy for the entire state of Michigan. My thoughts are with the victims, their families, friends, and loved ones.”
Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks (D-Grand Rapids) also has a child who attends MSU.
“As the mom of an MSU student, I’m watching with dread as the events on and around campus are unfolding, so grateful and relieved my daughter is answering my texts and calls. My heart is breaking for the parents whose children have been injured or killed,” Brinks tweeted.
American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten and David Hecker, AFT Michigan president, demanded that politicians take immediate action on gun control.
“The tragedy at Michigan State demands immediate action from our state and federal lawmakers,” Weingarten and Hecker said in a joint statement. “We cannot become numb and accept this violence as normal. We cannot allow politics to hold us back from acting. Too many lives have been taken because of gun violence and too little has been done. Our elected officials need to act and push through common sense gun violence prevention legislation that will save lives.”
Similar sentiments were echoed by U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Lansing) and groups including Michigan Education Association (MEA), MSU Administrative Professionals Association, Campaign for a Safer Michigan, Detroit Action, Michigan Health & Hospital Association (MHA), Progress Michigan and more.
Mitchell Robinson, a Democratic member of the State Board of Education in Michigan, said that his two sons were on campus when the shooting began; one was in the Union and heard the shots. Robinson said both of his sons are safe.
President Joe Biden’s press secretary said on Twitter that Biden spoke with Whitmer Monday night following the shooting. Whitmer also confirmed that at the press conference Tuesday morning.
Republicans, now in the minority in the Michigan Legislature, also offered some words of support for victims but did not offer plans of action.
“Today, we are all Spartans,” reads the lone statement from the House GOP caucus on Twitter.
State Sens. Aric Nesbitt (R-Porter Twp.) and Mark Huizenga (R-Walker) issued statements of their own, with Nesbitt writing that “parents and community leaders [are] desperately searching for ways to prevent these senseless attacks on the innocent.”
Some Republicans in Congress also responded.
U.S. Sen. Lisa McClain (R-Romeo) also tweeted that she is “heartbroken” and is praying for the MSU community and families affected.
“This culture of violence and murder must stop,” said U.S. Rep. John James (R-Farmington Hills).
Michigan Advance is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Michigan Advance maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Susan Demas for questions: info@michiganadvance.com. Follow Michigan Advance on Facebook and Twitter.
(Reuters) -Republican former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence is preparing to resist a grand jury subpoena for testimony about efforts to overturn then-President Donald Trump's 2020 reelection loss, a source familiar with his plans said on Tuesday.
Pence will argue that his role as president of the Senate - making him a member of the legislative branch - shields him from certain Justice Department demands, rather than cite executive privilege as then-vice president, the source said.
A representative for Pence did not respond to a request for comment on his decision to challenge Special Counsel Jack Smith's request, first reported by Politico. Smith's office declined to comment.
Smith, a political independent and former war crimes prosecutor, is investigating efforts to overturn the 2020 election that included Trump supporters' deadly Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol as Congress met to certify Democrat Joe Biden's victory.
Trump has repeatedly made false claims that he lost the 2020 election to Biden through massive voter fraud. He has also harshly criticized Pence for not blocking Congress' certification on Jan. 6 as Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, some chanting: "Hang Mike Pence."
Pence's chief of staff, Marc Short, and Greg Jacob, who was Pence's top legal counsel, along with other former top White House lawyers have previously appeared before the grand jury now being led by Smith.
A now-disbanded House of Representatives panel that investigated the attack also sought testimony from Pence, who did not appear. It ultimately called for federal prosecutors to charge Trump with four crimes, including insurrection.
Trump, who is running again for president in 2024, has called the probes part of an ongoing political witch hunt. Pence, who publicly detailed some of his conversations with Trump about the 2020 election in a book last year, is weighing a presidential bid himself and has urged Republicans to move past their White House loss.
(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch and Susan Heavey in Washington; Additional reporting by Maria Ponnezhath in Bengaluru; Editing by Robert Birsel, Jonathan Oatis and Marguerita Choy)
Donald Trump Jr., son of the former president, complained this week that people often accuse him of having a cocaine habit instead of focusing on President Joe Biden's son Hunter.
During a rant on his Triggered podcast on Monday, Trump said that people suggest he's on cocaine after seeing his political speeches.
"I've been blessed beyond belief in this country," Trump told Kash Patel. "I got thrown into politics in my late 30s, and all the sudden, it's like, hey, I just actually believe this stuff. I will more than happily fight for it."
"It would have been a lot easier to shut the hell up and be a real estate developer," he continued. "It's so important to be in that fight. But I look at what they called me: a traitor. Adam Schiff wanted to try me for treason. You know, a crime punishable by death."
Trump accused Hunter Biden of taking "a billion from China" and laundering money.
"And it's like, he's an upstanding human being!" Trump exclaimed. "And then I give an impassioned speech, and they're like, 'Oh, Don Jr. is on coke!'"
On the internet’s far-right fringes preach a group of “Trump prophets” who, since Donald Trump lost the White House in 2020, have endlessly predicted the former president would return to the White House triumphantly that year.
Their grim visions typically include scenarios where President Joe Biden and other Democrats reveal themselves on national television as agents of evils — Lucifer or Beelzubub — perhaps during the Super Bowl.
But now that Trump has officially announced another bid for the presidency and Biden prepares to announce his own plans for re-election, many prominent Trump prophets are changing their tune.
For example, some of these Trump prophets who predicted brutal ends for liberals now say Democrats won’t be killed by heavenly forces of justice just for being “woke”.
Some are no longer certain that Biden, as previously proffered, is the Antichrist — because someone else is.
Perhaps most surprising: some Trump prophets dare predict Americans can be happy … without Trump returning to the White House in 2023 or even in 2025.
How profound is this shift? Consider that a 2019 survey of white Protestants found that about one in three evangelicals and more than half of Pentecostals believe God chose Trump to rule and save America.
HOW DOES ONE BECOME A TRUMP PROPHET?
No seminary education — or higher education at all — is required to declare oneself a Trump prophet. One Trump prophet, Kat Kerr, often alludes to ending her formal education with a high school diploma.
Generally, one must claim that God gave him or her a Trump-related prediction to share on YouTube or other pro-Trump programming, such as that of ex-Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn’s Renewal road show.
Knowledge of the Biblical Rapture is essential. In some Trump prophets’ versions, God scoops Trumpers off Earth, leaving clothes, eyeglasses, hearing aids behind, to deposit them in Heaven while non-Trumpers burn. (The Biblical apolitical description of the Rapture in Thessalonians’ chapter 4 describes rescuing the godly.)
Some Trump prophets have churches. Others have nonprofit online ministries so nebulous, it’s hard to discern their purpose — their websites offer no evidence that they engage in any traditional, charitable activity, such as feeding the hungry or assisting the needy.
Yet Trump prophets remain influential with hundreds of thousands of fans heeding their YouTube shows, podcasts and books.
Meet four of the most notable Trump prophets and how their prophecies have changed:
KAT KERR
The seer from Jacksonville, Fla., with cotton candy pink hair warned followers in 2021 that she didn’t trust COVID-19 vaccines with that “villain fraudulent person” — a reference to Biden — in the White House.
Her followers, she said, could only safely get vaccinated once Trump was back in the Oval Office. She believed God would soon replace Biden with Trump.
She predicted this again in 2022.
But this year, Kerr has dramatically changed her message.
Her new year’s prophecies went out to 45,300 YouTube channel subscribers. She tells followers to be satisfied with Trump's “miracle” 2016 election. And the 2020 election?
“Let all that go,” she advises. “You are not living in perilous times … roll up your rapture rug and put on your crown.”
Kerr returns to her cheerful vision, imploring people of faith to stop fighting each other and remember Earthly life is a temporary job — but Heaven is forever, and it’s dazzling.
As this Trump prophet sees it, cars in Heaven don’t roll on golden streets because “flowercopters” transport residents.
There’s a big jiggly city made of multi-colored Jell-O that locals can nibble and a park with 80-foot-tall waves that never injure surfers.
Kerr says man-sized talking rabbits teach kids to paint with liquid light. And there’s even a body parts warehouse where heavenly inhabitants can try on stronger jawlines or long, ballerina legs..
Trees sing. Flowers dance. A rollercoaster takes you high in the sky then swoops under the ocean.Cows drive tractors on the most divine of farms.
And yes, Trump will be there — a celestial VIP who hosts great parties
JOHNNY ENLOW
Atlanta pastor-turned-Trump prophet Johnny Enlow told followers not to sweat Biden’s Jan. 20, 2021 inauguration. God, he said, would still plop Trump into the Oval Office any month. Enlow stuck to his prophecy for the next couple of years.
Now he envisions 2023 as “glory days, not gloomy days” regardless of who is in and who is out of the White House for the moment.
Meanwhile, the faithful will still deal with an “unending stream of wokeness,” he told “Elijah Streams” talk show host Steve Schultz. But happily, “the Holy Spirit is forcing trans and Satan worshippers to reveal themselves like (they did) on the Grammys” to end confusion about who is what.
God smacked Enlow with a vision while Enlow was in prayer walking on a beach this winter, he said.
God delivered stunning good news: the Antichrist had already ruled on Earth and believers had survived in great shape. While Enlow didn’t offer the Antichrist’s human name, other Trump prophets have claimed former President Barack Obama is the Antichrist.
Enlow emphasized: “It’s not a time of darkness …That’s misreading the times we’re in.”
Enlow prophesied that there were enough conservative believers to peacefully take over “seven mountains” of influence in America — media, government, education, economy, family, religion, and celebration (arts and entertainment).
Enlow has more than 97,000 Facebook followers who enthusiastically praise his many published books and audio recordings.
JEREMIAH JOHNSON
Johnson, a North Carolina pastor, gained national notice as a Trump prophet who apologized for wrongly prophesying Trump would win in 2020.
He didn’t blame elections officials, voting machines or even Satan for his mistake.
“I refuse to blame the saints and say, It didn’t come to pass because they did not pray enough,” Johnson said in a statement then. “Nor will I proclaim, ‘Donald Trump actually won, so I was right, but now it has been stolen from him.”
His 2023 prophecies got more than 74,500 YouTube views. Johnson warned followers to beware of religious men who hated women. and prophets who lied because all they cared about was money but in 2023.
JULIE GREEN
There are holdouts who still hew to their Trump predictions of years past.
One is Trump prophet Julie Green, who has consistently reassured Trumpers that Trump would retake power. She says she is associate pastor of her family’s church in Quad Cities, Iowa, and leads an outfit called Julie Green Ministries.
And she is a star speaker on Mike Flynn’s Renewal national revival tour that sold out in Las Vegas and other metropolises.
Last year, she told Rolling Stone that God had a list of politicians He would kill in 2022: then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Rep. Liz Cheney, Sen. Mitt Romney, Sen. Mitch McConnell.
Everyone on this list is alive. And yet, Green still parrots QAnon-style lies. She told Rolling Stone that Pelosi was a witch who gulps babies’ blood. She repeatedly accuses Obama of being the Antichrist without ever explaining why.
Her performances include an element most Christians would consider a sacrilege: she speaks as if God is talking through her mouth. In one video, she sits in her car wearing sunglasses and says, attempting a deep voice, to Trump:
“I love you so much, my son.”
Her 2023 prophecy?
“People in leadership will step down … You will see them resign. And many will die … you will see many hauled out of government buildings …You will see them be marched out … handcuffed.”
God did not specify the political party to which the doomed belonged.
The US military said on Monday it had recovered critical electronics from the suspected Chinese spy balloon downed by a US fighter jet off South Carolina's coast on February 4, including key sensors presumably used for intelligence gathering.
"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," the US military's Northern Command said in a statement.
The Chinese balloon, which Beijing denies was a government spy vessel, spent a week flying over the United States and Canada before President Joe Biden ordered it shot down.
The episode strained ties between Washington and Beijing, leading America's top diplomat to postpone a trip to China.
It also led to the US military scouring the skies for other objects that were not being captured by radar, leading to an unprecedented three shootdowns in the three days between Friday and Sunday.
The US military and the Biden administration have acknowledged that much about the most recent, unmanned objects remains unknown, including how they stay aloft, who built them and whether they may have been collecting intelligence.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin sought to calm Americans on Monday about the risks posed by the unidentified objects.
"I want to reassure Americans that these objects do not present a military threat to anyone on the ground," Austin said, speaking to reporters as he landed in Brussels for a NATO gathering.
"They do, however, present a risk to civil aviation and potentially an intelligence collection threat."
The US military has said that targeting the latest objects has been more difficult than shooting down the Chinese spy balloon, given the smaller size and the objects' lack of a traditional radar signature.
In an example of the difficulty, the latest shootdown of an unidentified object on Sunday by an F-16 fighter jet took two sidewinder missiles - after one of them failed to down the target, a US official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Austin said the US military has not yet recovered any debris from the three most recent objects shot down, one of which fell off the coast of Alaska in ice and snow. Another shootdown occurred over the Yukon territory in Canada.
US officials have declined to connect the incidents.
But Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Monday that the four aerial objects shot down in recent days were somehow connected, without elaborating.
"Obviously there is some sort of pattern in there, the fact we are seeing this in a significant degree over the past week is a cause for interest and close attention," Trudeau told reporters in a news conference in Whitehorse, Yukon's capital.
Politico reports that Pence is planning to argue against the subpoena on the grounds that it would violate separation of powers.
"Pence is set to argue that his former role as president of the Senate — therefore a member of the legislative branch — shields him from certain Justice Department demands," the publication writes. "Pence allies say he is covered by the constitutional provision that protects congressional officials from legal proceedings related to their work — language known as the “speech or debate” clause."
Pence is a key witness in Smith's investigation into former President Donald Trump's efforts to illegally remain in power despite losing the 2020 election to President Joe Biden.
Trump and attorney John Eastman launched a pressure campaign to get Pence to refuse to certify the results of the 2020 election and send the decision back to Republican-controlled state legislatures.
Pence refused, which led to Trump lashing out at him both privately and publicly, and which made the former vice president the target of chants calling for his hanging by Trump supporters who stormed the United States Capitol on January 6th, 2021.
The White House responded Monday to growing and at times fevered speculation over the shooting down of unidentified aerial objects by saying the targets could be anything from commercial craft to espionage devices, while denying that US balloons spy on China.
After mounting pressure on President Joe Biden's administration to explain the unprecedented situation that has seen an alleged Chinese spy balloon and three mystery objects shot down in North America in just over a week, officials appeared sure of only one thing: It's not aliens.
"I just wanted to make sure we address this from the White House," Biden's press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre said at the top of the first full-blown briefing since the latest shoot-down of an unidentified object Sunday.
"There have been questions and concerns about this but there is no -- again, no -- indication of aliens or extraterrestrial activity."
What actually is going on, however, remains unclear.
According to the US government, the first of the four objects -- a sophisticated, high-altitude balloon shot down on February 4 off the coast of South Carolina -- was part of an ongoing, global "fleet" of Chinese espionage balloons.
China denied this, calling the huge balloon an errant weather research craft, and lashed out at Washington on Monday. Beijing said more than 10 US balloons entered Chinese airspace "without any approval" over the last year.
As for another high-altitude balloon spotted in Latin America, China says that was a civilian flight test device.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters the US is "not flying surveillance balloons over China."
"I'm not aware of any other craft that we're flying over into Chinese airspace," he said.
Uncertain origins, objectives
The United States says the large Chinese balloon down on February 4 was obviously a spy craft and that the debris is currently being plucked from the Atlantic Ocean for analysis.
Crews have recovered important sensor and electronics parts from the balloon, as well as large parts of the structure, the US military said Monday.
The other three unidentified objects -- shot down Friday over Alaska, Saturday over the Yukon in Canada, and Sunday over Lake Huron on the US-Canadian border -- were much smaller, less sophisticated, and were flying lower than the Chinese balloon from earlier this month.
US officials know little about them -- not even to whom they belonged.
"Countries, companies, research and academic organizations operate objects at these altitudes for purposes that are not nefarious at all, including scientific research," Kirby said.
Whether they were spying also remains unknown.
"Even if we have no indications that any of these three objects were surveilling, we couldn't rule that out," he said.
Officials also say that the perceived increase in incidents could be due to an adjustment in radar settings after February 4, which means items once passing unseen are now caught.
"One of the reasons that we think we're seeing more is because we're looking for more," Kirby said.
The truth will not be clear until debris is collected and that is not simple, either.
In the case of the large Chinese balloon, sea conditions made diving impossible Monday, Kirby said, while the three subsequent craft were brought down in "pretty remote, difficult areas to reach."
Canadian Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino called the location of the debris of the unidentified object shot down over the Yukon on Saturday "extremely challenging and difficult to access."
China tensions
In Washington, the extraordinary events are fueling already intense suspicion about China across both the Democratic and Republican parties -- a trend likely to grow as the 2024 presidential election approaches.
The diplomatic fallout has already been substantial, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken abruptly canceling a rare visit to Beijing.
China's accusations of US spying prompted National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson to allege that Beijing has a high-altitude spying program that has violated the airspace of "40 countries across five continents."
The State Department said China was "scrambling to do damage control" and that the communist government "has failed to offer any credible explanations for its intrusion into our airspace."
But over the weekend, Chinese state-affiliated media reported that an unidentified flying object had been spotted off the country's east coast and that the military was preparing to shoot it down.
Beijing on Monday declined to comment on that report, referring journalists to the defense ministry, which did not respond to requests for comment from AFP.
(Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden has decided to name Federal Reserve Vice Chair Lael Brainard as his top economic adviser, with an announcement coming as soon as Tuesday, Bloomberg reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.
Additionally, long-time Biden confidant Jared Bernstein is expected to replace Cecilia Rouse as chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, the report said.
Biden is making over his top economic team as the Fed continues to hike interest rates but the U.S. labor market remains tight, raising the prospect of an unusual recession without significant job losses.
The next NEC director and CEA chair will help shape the Democratic Biden administration's economic policy, from executive orders to congressional spending bills and raising the debt limit, in the face of a more hostile U.S. House of Representatives, now controlled by Republicans.
Brainard, a Harvard-educated Democrat who has been at the Fed for nearly a decade and served as Treasury's top international affairs expert under President Barack Obama, would replace Brian Deese at the NEC.
(Reporting by Akriti Sharma in Bengaluru; Editnig by Kim Coghill)
Austin Majors, a child star who appeared in "NYPD Blue" and the Disney cult classic "Treasure Planet," was found dead over the weekend of a suspected fentanyl overdose, reported The Daily Beast on Monday.
"His death was first reported Monday by TMZ, which said the actor died in 'a homeless housing facility' in Los Angeles," reported A.J. McDougall. "A source close to the matter told the outlet that Majors is believed to have ingested a lethal amount of fentanyl, though an official cause of death has not been determined."
Per the report, an autopsy is scheduled "to be completed later on Monday."
“Austin was the kind of son, brother, grandson, and nephew that made us proud and we will miss him deeply forever,” said Majors' family in a statement, adding that he was “a loving, artistic, brilliant, and kind human being.”
Fentanyl and other synthetic opioids have seen an explosion throughout the country. They are much stronger than conventional opioids and easy to mix into other substances, making it particularly dangerous and likely to trigger overdoses.
President Joe Biden has made the fentanyl epidemic a priority, laying out plans at the State of the Union Address including enhanced drug scanning at ports of entry to stop the substance from being smuggled into the country.
WASHINGTON/BEIJING (Reuters) - The United States said on Monday it still did not know the origin or purpose of three aerial objects that its military shot down over the weekend, as Washington and Beijing traded accusations about high-altitude balloons.
While American and Canadian officials struggled to explain the presence of the objects, a White House spokesperson stressed that there was no reason to believe that they were anything other than human-made.
"There is no, again, no indication of aliens or extraterrestrial activity with these recent takedowns," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.
The saga began with a suspected Chinese spy balloon that drifted across the United States and was shot down by the U.S. military off the coast of South Carolina on Feb. 4.
Since then, U.S. fighter jets have downed three more mysterious objects over North American airspace starting on Friday.
"We have not yet been able to definitively assess what these most recent objects are," White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said at a news briefing.
U.S. military fighter jets on Sunday downed an octagonal object over Lake Huron, the Pentagon said. On Friday, an object was shot down over sea ice near Deadhorse, Alaska, and a third, cylindrical in shape, was destroyed over Canada's Yukon on Saturday.
The debris from the items, which has not been found, should "tell us a lot," Kirby said.
The objects, flying at altitudes of between 20,000 and 40,000 feet, were considered a risk to air traffic, he said, although they did not pose a threat to people on the ground. They also were shot down because U.S. authorities could not rule out that they were spying, he said.
Closer scrutiny of airspace may partially explain why so many new objects have been found. U.S. officials told Reuters that the military has been adjusting how it examines radar data, allowing it to spot smaller, slower-moving items.
CHINA ACCUSES U.S. OF ILLEGAL BALLOONS
China said it had no information about any of the three objects. Washington called the first object, the Chinese craft, a surveillance balloon while China has insisted it was a weather-monitoring vessel blown badly off course.
The Chinese balloon triggered an uproar in Washington, shaking up the already contentious relationship between the world's two biggest economies and prompting U.S. President Joe Biden's top diplomat, Antony Blinken, to cancel his scheduled trip to Beijing last week.
China on Monday widened its dispute with the United States over aerial surveillance, claiming that U.S. high-altitude balloons had flown over its airspace without permission more than 10 times since the beginning of 2022. The White House denied the assertion.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said that the alleged U.S. balloon flights last year were illegal but did not describe the balloons as military or for espionage purposes.
At Friday's White House briefing, Kirby said: "There is no U.S. surveillance aircraft in Chinese airspace. I'm not aware of any other craft that we're flying over into Chinese airspace."
When pressed whether any U.S. craft was being used over Chinese-claimed airspace in Taiwan and the South China Sea, he declined to specify further.
China asserts numerous disputed territorial claims, including in waters in the East and South China Seas, where the U.S. military says it routinely operates according to international law.
The White House, which has tried to tamp down rhetoric around China following the balloon incident, took a noticeably sharper tone on Monday.
"This is the latest example of China scrambling to do damage control," Adrienne Watson, another White House national security spokesperson, said in a statement.
"It has repeatedly and wrongly claimed the surveillance balloon it sent over the United States was a weather balloon and to this day has failed to offer any credible explanations for its intrusion into our airspace and the airspace of others."
Asked if the balloon incident and Beijing's response had set back U.S.-China relations, Kirby said during his briefing: "It has certainly not helped us move forward in the way that we wanted to move."
SEARCHING FOR DEBRIS
As the search for the three recently downed objects continued, Senate Republican minority leader Mitch McConnell demanded more information from the Biden administration.
"The administration has still not been able to divulge any meaningful information about what was shot down. What in the world is going on?" McConnell said in the Senate.
In Canada's Yukon province, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he toured with some Canadian forces who will be leading recovery efforts on the ground.
Heavy snow was making conditions hazardous for the recovery efforts in what Trudeau said was a "fairly large area" between Dawson City and Mayo in central Yukon.
"This is a very serious situation," Trudeau said, adding that he would speak to Biden fact-to-face about the objects in March, when the U.S. president is expected to make a visit to Canada.
A Canadian coast guard ship and two helicopters were helping the search and recovery in Lake Huron, said Joyce Murray, the country's minister of fisheries and oceans.
(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt, Phil Stewart, Idrees Ali, Michael Martina and Katharine Jackson in Washington, Brendan O'Brien in Chicago, Martin Quin Pollard in Beijing; Steve Scherer in Ottawa; Writing by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Don Durfee and Cynthia Osterman)
Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is taking heat after standing on the floor of the U.S. Senate and attacking President Joe Biden over the four objects the Pentagon has now shot down, including three just this weekend.
“The administration has still not been able to divulge any meaningful information about what was shot down,” McConnell claimed Monday afternoon. “What in the world is going on? Has the Biden administration just dialed the sensitivity of our radars all the way up? If so, what are these objects that we are just now noticing for the very first time?”
McConnell is incorrect.
“The U.S. has now collected 510 reports of unidentified flying objects, many of which are flying in sensitive military airspace,” The Associated Press reported in January. “While there’s no evidence of extraterrestrials, they still pose a threat, the government said in a declassified report summary.”
He was not finished fear-mongering.
“Are they benign science projects and wayward weather balloons? Or something more nefarious that we’ve somehow been missing all this time. President Biden owes the American people some answers. What are we shooting down? Where did they come from? Whether they are hostile or not, is there coherent guidance about when to shoot them down?”
McConnell is pursuing the same plan as practically every other elected Republican in the House and the Senate, asking questions they already know the answers to, in an attempt to attack President Biden.
Mark Hertling, the former Commanding General of United States Army Europe and the Seventh Army under President Barack Obama responded to McConnell’s attack.
“I’m confused,” Hertling tweeted. “Congress was briefed,” he said. Pointing to the National Security Council’s spokesperson, Admiral John Kirby, Hertling noted he “gave an hour briefing providing extensive information & answering every reporter’s Q’s. Said ‘as we learn more & recover the objects, we’ll provide more info.'”
Hertling also noted Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken also provided information “on what they know/did.”
Secretary Austin on Monday promised to “get to the bottom of it,:” and said: “We’ve not recovered any debris from the three most recent shoot downs…our policy hasn’t changed. We will evaluate each an every event on its own merits…”
Even Fox News on Monday reported Sec. Austin said, “While authorities don’t yet know what the objects are, they are not a threat.”
Last week every member of the House and Senate was invited to a classified briefing on China and the spy balloon. The other three objects were shot down over the weekend, and the full Senate will receive a classified briefing at 10 AM Tuesday and another classified briefing on China on Wednesday.
In addition to all that, CNN reports the Pentagon already sent lawmakers a memo on at least one of the objects it shot down over the weekend.
“The unidentified flying object shot down in Canadian airspace on Saturday appeared to be a ‘small, metallic balloon with a tethered payload below it,’ according to a Pentagon memo sent to lawmakers on Monday and obtained by CNN.”
In addition to all that, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) released five memos on the UAPs/UFOs between Saturday and Sunday, stating clearly what they had done.
And the Dept. of Defense Monday released photos of part of the recovered China spy balloon.
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