Wednesday, August 10 top stories
It is Wednesday, August 10. Here are today’s top stories.
Albuquerque police arrest suspected killer
Police in Albuquerque said they arrested a man who they suspect may have killed four Muslim men in the city during three different incidents in the past two weeks and a fourth in November.
Police said the suspect, Muhammad Syed, is himself Muslim and that he may have shot two of the victims out of anger that his daughter married a man who was following a different branch of Islam.
Syed was driving the same type of car that police described as a vehicle of interest. There were several guns recovered from the car and police believe these weapons were used in two of the murders and are testing whether they are connected to the other two.
Syed immigrated from Afghanistan and lived in Albuquerque for five or six years. He was charged with domestic violence several times in the past but they were later dismissed.
Police said it’s not yet appropriate to label the killings as either hate crimes or serial murders. They said there is evidence that an “interpersonal conflict” — such as the marriage controversy over religious beliefs — may have led to the murders.
Ukrainian forces attack Russian base in Crimea
On Tuesday, there were at least three explosions at a Russian air base in the Crimean Peninsula. At least one person was killed and nine were injured.
The Ukrainian military claimed responsibility for the blasts. A senior Ukrainian military official told the New York Times that they attacked this particular base because it was where Russian jets regularly took off to conduct bombing attacks against southern Ukraine.
Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.
The Ukrainian official said the weapons used in the attacks were manufactured in Ukraine. This is to clarify that the weapons didn’t come from U.S. or European defense aid packages. It is not known what the type of weapon it was and how the explosions occurred.
Four killed in Texas golf cart crash
On Saturday in Galveston, Texas, a suspected drunk driver driving an SUV crashed into a pick-up truck that then crashed into a golf cart that was carrying six people.
Four of them were killed, a grandfather, two of his grandchildren, and a niece. The two others on the cart were critically injured.
The suspected drunk driver, Miguel Espinoza (45) was charged with four counts of intoxication manslaughter. Police said he ran a stop sign before the crashes.
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Donald Trump to face New York Attorney General
Donald Trump said he would appear before a deposition today in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ investigation of his actions as a businessman. Trump said he wouldn’t be answering any questions and use his Fifth Amendment rights to refuse to answer questions that may be incriminating against himself and potentially cause legal peril. So he has a right to do this and said he wouldn’t answer questions.
The investigation will try to understand if the Trump Organization gave out misleading information about the value of its assets — by overvaluing or undervaluing them — to gain favorable tax benefits. Trump said it is all a witch hunt.
In separate news, a federal appeals court ruled that a House committee can obtain Trump’s tax returns. Trump has been fighting to block the release since 2019. The House Ways and Means Committee said they expect to receive the tax returns immediately but Trump’s side will probably appeal the ruling.
These two probes are separate from the Justice Department’s investigation on classified records that led to FBI agents entering his Mar-a-Lago resort on Monday evening and also separate from the investigations on efforts to illegally overturn the 2020 election.
Nebraska mother charged with helping teen daughter get an abortion
A 41-year-old mother in Norfolk, Nebraska, Jessica Burgess, was arrested and charged with helping her 17-year-old daughter to end her pregnancy at about 23 weeks with abortion pills in April.
Law enforcement used a search warrant to gain access to Burgess’ Facebook messages with her daughter. They exchanged messages about using medicine to induce an abortion and talked about plans to get rid of the fetus by burning it. The mother bought the pills online and the daughter said in a message that she couldn’t wait to get the “thing” out of her body.
ABC News explained that Nebraska already had a restriction that makes it illegal to perform an abortion after 20 weeks since 2010, but it couldn’t be enforced due to abortion rights provided by the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court ruling. That changed in June when Roe was overturned.
Law enforcement first became aware of the abortion after a friend of the teenager daughter contacted police after they saw the daughter take the first of two pills.
The teenager daughter told police that she unexpectedly gave birth at home and that her mother and a third person buried the fetus several miles north of town. Police found the fetus and said it was about 23 weeks old and had signs of thermal wounds — meaning it was burned.
Burgess will face a jury trial in October on charges of disposing of human skeletal remains, concealing the death of another person, providing false information, and performing an abortion without a license.
The teenager daughter, who has since turned 18, will also face a trial as an adult on similar charges except for performing an abortion without a license.
This case has raised controversy because of how police used a search warrant to gain access to Facebook messages to investigate an abortion, which is unprecedented.
Sturgeon supermoon in the sky
On Thursday evening the next full moon will rise in the sky as a “sturgeon moon” and as a "supermoon." It will reach its peak illumination at 9:36 pm ET.
USA Today explained that August’s full moon is traditionally called the sturgeon moon because the fish is easy to catch in the Great Lakes in August.
A supermoon is when the moon’s orbit brings it closer to Earth than usual, making it appear a bit bigger and brighter. I read that you can enjoy the full moon with binoculars.
That is all the top stories for today. See you tomorrow and stay with the light.
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/08/09/world/ukraine-russia-news-war
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/09/us/albuquerque-muslim-killings.html
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/08/09/texas-golf-cart-crash-victims/10274969002/
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/nebraska-woman-charged-helping-daughter-abortion-88169858