Month: September 2024

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (“GBI”) has confirmed that at least four people were killed, and nine hospitalized after a shooting at a Georgia high school.  A post on X from the GBI noted that a suspect is in custody.

The Wednesday morning shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, located in Barrow County roughly 50 miles east of the state’s capital in Atlanta, saw multiple of law enforcement agencies respond before 10:30 a.m. local time. The Georgia high school was under lockdown until a little before 11:30 a.m., when the site was cleared and students released to families.

CNN reported that the suspect in the fatal mass shooting has been identified as Colt Gray. Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Chris Hosey said at an afternoon news conference that Gray is a student at the school, and will be charged with murder and handled as an adult as he moves through the criminal justice system.

Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith said the shooting was reported at 10:23 a.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 4 at Apalachee High School, with the school  put on lockdown in the aftermath of the shooting. Two teachers and two students were killed, authorities said, with nine other victims were taken to hospitals with injuries.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said in a post on X he has “directed all available state resources to respond to the incident at Apalachee High School and urge all Georgians to join my family in praying for the safety of those in our classrooms, both in Barrow County and across the state. We will continue to work with local, state, and federal partners as we gather information and further respond to this situation.”

President Joe Biden said in a statement shared by the White House Wednesday afternoon that he is “mourning the deaths” of those killed in the shooting and that he is “thinking of all of the survivors whose lives are forever changed.  What should have been a joyous back-to-school season in Winder, Georgia, has now turned into another horrific reminder of how gun violence continues to tear our communities apart. Students across the country are learning how to duck and cover instead of how to read and write. We cannot continue to accept this as normal. We are closely coordinating with officials at the federal, state and local level, and are grateful for the first responders who brought the suspect into custody and prevented further loss of life.”

At a separate news conference on Wednesday, Attorney General Merrick Garland said he was “devastated for the families who have been affected by this terrible tragedy.  We are still gathering information, but the FBI and ATF are on the scene working with state, local and federal partners. The Justice Department stands ready to provide any resources or support that the Winder community needs in the days ahead.”

Winder, GA is located about 50 miles outside Atlanta. Schools in Barrow County will be closed the rest of the week.

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On Wednesday, the Departments of Justice and Treasury announced sanctions targeting Russian government-sponsored attempts to manipulate U.S. public opinion ahead of the November election. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the sweeping crackdown of efforts by the Russian government to influence the upcoming 2024 election through covert networks aimed at spreading disinformation to American voters (per ABC News).

Garland stated: “That law enacted nearly a century ago, was enacted to ensure that the American people were informed when a foreign power engages in political activities or seeks to influence public discourse. The American people are entitled to know when a foreign power is attempting to exploit our country’s free exchange of ideas in order to send around its own propaganda.”

Garland said the State Department would also take separate actions, announcing that the DOJ had unsealed an indictment in the Southern District of New York that charges two employees of the Russian-backed media network RT with conspiring to commit money laundering and to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The defendants — Konstantin Kalashnikov, 31, and Elena Afanasyeva, 27 — are accused of implementing a nearly $10 million scheme to fund and direct a Tennessee-based company to publish and disseminate content that was considered favorable to the Russian government. The company then contracted with U.S.-based social media influencers to share that content on their platforms.

FBI Director Christopher Wray highlighted both foreign and domestic incidents of attempts to influence voters: “RT has used people living and working inside the U.S. to facilitate contracts with American media figures to create and disseminate Russian propaganda here. The content was pitched as legitimate independent news when, in fact, much of it was created in Russia by RT employees who work for the Russian government. The second operation reveals even more malign activities by companies working under the direction and control of the Russian government, companies that created media websites to trick Americans into unwittingly consuming Russian propaganda.”

Garland shared that information was “often consistent with Russia’s interest in amplifying U.S. domestic divisions in order to weaken U.S. opposition to core Russian interests, particularly its ongoing war in Ukraine.”  Kalashnikov identified himself as RT’s “Deputy Chief of the Digital Media Projects Department,” and Afanasyeva has identified herself on social media as a “producer at RT, dealing with overseas affairs and news.”  Said Garland: “The company never disclosed to the influencers or to their millions of followers as ties to RT and the Russian government. Instead, the defendants and the company claimed that the company was sponsored by a private investor, but that private investor was a fictitious persona.”

The Treasury Department also announced that its Office of Foreign Assets Control had designated 10 people and two entities as part of a “coordinated U.S. government response to Moscow’s malign influence efforts targeting the 2024 U.S. presidential election.”  The Treasury Department shared in its announcement of sanctions that RT  “used a front company to disguise its own involvement or the involvement of the Russian government in content meant to influence U.S. audiences.” Under the new actions, all property and interests in property of the designated people that are in the U.S. or in the possession or control of Americans are blocked and must be reported to the Office of Foreign Assets Control.

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In one of the deadliest Russian strikes since the war began, two ballistic missiles blasted a military academy and nearby hospital Tuesday in Ukraine, killing more than 50 people and wounding more than 200 others. According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Russian military forces on Tuesday launched missile strikes in the city of Poltava, a city of under 300,000 citizens located in Poltava Oblast in the east-central part of the country (about 75 miles from the Russian border, in a region known to be a regular target of Russian missile or drone strikes).

Reuters reports that Poltava Gov. Filip Pronon announced that at least 50 people were killed and 271 wounded in the strike as Ukraine’s defense ministry said that the missile strike caught people as they tried to evacuate.The missiles struck the Poltava Military Institute of Communication’s main building, causing several stories to collapse. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video posted on his Telegram channel: “People found themselves under the rubble. Many were saved. They targeted an educational institution, and a nearby hospital, partially destroying one of the telecommunications institute’s buildings.” Zelensky said “all necessary services” had been deployed to aid in the rescue operation, adding that he had ordered a “full and prompt investigation into all of the circumstances of what happened .. The Russian scum will surely pay for this strike.”

The Ukrainian defense ministry called the strike a ‘barbaric attack’ and added in a statement: “We express our sincere condolences to the families of the victims. This tragedy is yet another evidence of the enemy’s cunning, which stops at no crime to try to intimidate Ukrainians.”  The ministry added that emergency personnel managed to save 25 people, 11 of whom were trapped underneath the debris.

Ukraine’s land forces said military personnel had been killed: “the Land Forces Command is conducting an investigation to determine whether enough was done to protect the lives and health of the soldiers at the facility.” The strike followed Sunday’s airstrikes also by Russian military forces on the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv which injured more than 40 people including five children.

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Federal prosecutors alleged in an indictment unsealed Tuesday that Linda Sun – a former top-level aide to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul – schemed to advance the interests of China while working in New York State government. Sun had worked directly for Hochul’s administration for roughly 15 months following Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s 2021 resignation from the governor’s office amid allegations of sexual misconduct.

The indictment charges Sun with failure to register as a foreign agent, visa fraud, alien smuggling and money laundering conspiracy. Prosecutors added that Sun’s husband, Christopher Hu, also allegedly facilitated the transfer of millions of dollars in kickbacks for personal gain. According to federal prosecutors from the Eastern District of New York and the FBI,  Sun, 40, and Hu, 41, were arrested at their home on Long Island’s North Short on Tuesday morning on unspecified charges, after the FBI had searched the Manhasset home in July.

Sun worked in state government for about 15 years before she was fired last year from her job as deputy commissioner for strategic business development at the New York State Department of Labor. She previously served as Hochul’s deputy chief of staff and in the administration of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo. According to Hochul’s press secretary Avi Small, Sun was hired by the Executive Chamber more than a decade ago, before being fired last year. Small said in a statement to ABC News: “we terminated her employment in March 2023 after discovering evidence of misconduct, immediately reported her actions to law enforcement and have assisted law enforcement throughout this process.”

The indictment alleges that Sun blocked Taiwanese government officials from having access to high-level New York State officers, acting at the request of Chinese government officials and representatives of the Chinese Communist Party. According to the indictment, it is also alleged that Sun changed New York State officers’ messaging about China and arranged meetings for visiting delegations from the PRC government with New York State government officials. In return for these and other actions, Sun allegedly received economic and other benefits from China, including the facilitation of millions of dollars in transactions for the China-based business activities of Hu; travel benefits; tickets to events; promotion of a close family friend’s business; employment for Sun’s cousin in the PRC; and Nanjing-style salted ducks prepared by a PRC government official’s personal chef that were delivered to the residence of Sun’s parents.

United States Attorney Breon Peace said in a statement: “As alleged, while appearing to serve the people of New York as Deputy Chief of Staff within the New York State Executive Chamber, the defendant and her husband actually worked to further the interests of the Chinese government and the CCP. The illicit scheme enriched the defendant’s family to the tune of millions of dollars.”

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