May 5 top stories

It is May 5. Here are today’s top stories.

WHO announces end to Covid-19 global health emergency

The World Health Organization (WHO) said Covid-19 no longer represents a global health emergency. WHO Director-General Ghebreyesus said this doesn’t mean that Covid-19 is “over as a global threat,” but that it is no longer an emergency. There are now vaccines and various treatments against the coronavirus available.

The WHO director said Covid-19 has changed the world and it has changed us. He said if we go back to how things were before Covid-19, then we will have failed to learn our lessons and failed our future generations.

Coronation of King Charles III

On Saturday in Britain, there will be a coronation for King Charles III. It is a formal ceremony to crown the king after the death of Queen Elizabeth II in September. Charles’ wife, Camilla, will be crowned queen.

The service begins at 11 a.m. local time, which is 6 a.m. Eastern time in London. The festivities, which include street celebrations and a gala concert, will continue through the weekend and into Monday.

Woman killed while hiking in Phoenix

Last weekend in Phoenix, a 29-year-old woman named Lauren Heike was murdered while she was hiking on a trail.

Police looked for the suspect this week and announced the arrest of a 22-year-old man named Zion Teasley last night in connection to the murder.

On Saturday, Heike’s body was found in a desert area with trauma to her body. Police said her injuries showed that she was attacked from behind and that it was a “vicious attack.”

Earlier this week, police released a short video showing a person of interest that was seen running on a trail with a backpack. Police said the man they arrested, Teasley, is the same person seen in the video. He was charged with first-degree murder.

Heike’s mother said she loved to exercise and that she was a person who was beautiful inside and out, and that it is now a void for them.

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Second mass shooting in Serbia

In Serbia, a gunman killed eight people and wounded 14 others in three villages.

It was the country’s second mass shooting in two days with the first being a school shooting on Wednesday in which a seventh-grader killed eight students and a staffer using handguns he got from his father.

The gunman in Thursday’s incident was a 21-year-old man who wore a pro-Nazi slogan on a t-shirt and was driving and shooting randomly at groups of people in an area near the capital city of Belgrade. Over 600 police officers looked for him and found him hiding in his grandfather’s house.

Serbia’s President Vucic has vowed to crack down on the country’s gun regulations and wants to see an almost complete disarmament of Serbia.

The country has one of the world’s highest rates of gun ownership with many firearms there from the Balkan wars of the 1990s.

Wagner Group boss wants out of Bakhmut

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of a Russian mercenary army called the Wagner Group, said he would withdraw his troops from the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut within a week because they are not getting enough ammunition. Bakhmut is one of the cities in the frontline of the war in eastern Ukraine.

Yevgeny posted a video of himself walking around dead troops’ bodies, saying tens of thousands have been killed and injured and that he is not getting support from the Russian military.

It is not the first time that Yevgeny has posted videos complaining of a lack of support, so we will see if he stays or leaves. The Ukrainian military may be conducting a major counteroffensive in the area in the coming weeks.

NFL under investigation for discrimination

Axios reported that New York and California officials are jointly investigating the NFL over allegations of workplace discrimination and a hostile work environment at football league offices.

The NFL is facing several lawsuits filed by women who used to work for the NFL, one from a Black female employee who is alleging race discrimination and the other a sexual harassment suit from a woman who worked as an NFL Network wardrobe stylist. There may be many more women who have allegations of gender discrimination.

The NFL said in a statement that the allegations are inconsistent with the NFL’s values and that it doesn’t tolerate discrimination in any form. The NFL said it would fully cooperate with state officials.

That is all the top stories for this week. Have a good weekend and stay with the light.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/parents-woman-killed-arizona-trail-urge-people-forward/story

https://www.fox10phoenix.com/news/arrest-made-in-murder-of-north-phoenix-hiker-pd

https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/covid-is-no-longer-global-health-emergency-who-2023-05-05/

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-65493008

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/serbia-shooting-mladenovac-drive-by/

https://apnews.com/article/serbia-shooting-school-belgrade-guns-523b9bf8fdc0e89778baf0d8859401bf

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-65490418

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/04/world/europe/serbia-shooting.html

https://www.axios.com/2023/05/05/new-york-california-nfl-gender-discrimination-investigation