Wednesday, August 24 top stories
Ukraine marks its Independence Day holiday
Today is Ukraine’s Independence Day. There were no parades due to the risk of missile attacks from Russia. But Ukrainians displayed destroyed or captured Russian tanks on the main street in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, to show how the Russians failed to seize the city.
Ukrainian President Zelensky said in a speech that “Every new day is a new reason not to give up.” He said the end of the war is not peace but victory.
Two men convicted in plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Whitmer
A jury found two men guilty of plotting to kidnap Michigan Gov. Whitmer in 2020. The two men’s names are Adam Fox and Barry Croft Jr.
Prosecutors said the two men wanted to kidnap the governor at her vacation home and blow up a bridge to block police officers’ response. In 2020, there was a lot of anger over strict Covid-19 restrictions in Michigan. The two men were a part of a group that discussed ideas of starting a second American civil war. The FBI had an informant (inside guy) that got close to the group and collected evidence.
The two men face sentences of up to life in prison.
Train stops in tunnel underwater, passengers evacuate
Yesterday at 3:50 pm, Eurotunnel Le Shuttle broke down in a tunnel underwater and passengers had to evacuate. Eurotunnel Le Shuttle is a railway shuttle service between Calais, France to Folkestone, U.K. and the train can bring passengers, passengers’ cars, motorcycles, and bicycles. The route itself is 31 miles with 23.5 miles going underwater through a tunnel. This tunnel is the longest underwater tunnel in the world, and it is 246 feet below sea level.
What happened was that the train stopped after 10 minutes of going out and the alarms went off. People were forced to evacuate the train and they had to walk through the service tunnel. They were stuck in the tunnel for several hours and then had to walk 10 minutes to get on another train that transported them out of the tunnel.
In several articles, they shared that no one got hurt, but people mentioned it was such a scary experience and felt like a “disaster movie.” In the BBC article, it mentioned that a spokesperson for the Eurotunnel shared that the train did not “break down,” but it stopped because of the alarms going off which means an investigation is needed. No further information was shared on why the alarms went off, but Eurotunnel Le Shuttle announced that their services are resuming this morning.
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Florida postal worker dies after dogs attack
This recent weekend in rural northern Florida, the Interlachen Estates area, a postal worker named Pamela Jane Rock (61) died after being attacked by five dogs. Residents nearby heard Pamela scream for help and they rushed to get the dogs off of her. One neighbor even tried to use his gun to shoot to make noise in the hope it would scare the dogs off. It was not successful, so people had to physically remove the dogs from Pamela’s body.
By the time the police arrived, the dogs returned to their owner’s property and Pamela was on the ground with severe bleeding. Pamela was brought to a nearby hospital and then flown to a trauma center in Gainesville, where she died due to severe injuries.
The police mentioned that it seems the five dogs managed to escape from a fenced yard through an opening entry. After the attack, the animal control workers came and had to take the five dogs away to be euthanatized, and the owner had to relinquish them.
More than 5,400 postal employees were attacked by dogs in the USA in 2021. USPS encourages people to keep their dogs inside, behind a fence, away from the door, or on a leash when postal workers come to drop off the mail.
Dinosaur tracks discovered due to drought
Dinosaur tracks have been found at Dinosaur Valley State Park in Texas due to drought, and scientists say it is from a 113 million-year-old dinosaur called the Acrocanthosaurus. The officials say that the dinosaur stood 15 feet tall and weighed close to seven tons.
The tracks were found in the Paluxy River. The water level receded due to a major drought. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department mentioned that there has been “excessive drought in the past summer, so the river dried up which caused the discovery of those dinosaur tracks”. They also shared that “under normal river conditions”, those tracks “would be underwater and commonly filled with sediment making them buried and not as visible.”
Dinosaur State Park is a state-owned natural history preserve that is about 80 acres and protects one of the largest dinosaur track sites in North America.
That’s all for now. See you tomorrow and stay with the light.
Ukraine: https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/23/europe/ukraine-independence-day-kyiv-display-intl/index.html
Eurotunnel: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-62655148
https://www.tripsavvy.com/traveling-the-eurotunnel-1661870
Florida: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/florida-postal-carrier-dead-was-mauled-5-dogs-rcna44532
https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/23/us/florida-postal-worker-dog-attack/index.html
Dinosaur: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-62653451
https://www.foxnews.com/us/dinosaur-tracks-unearthed-texas-state-park-drought-dries-river
https://nypost.com/2022/08/23/dinosaur-tracks-discovered-in-texas-after-drought-dries-up-river/