A gunman killed four people before taking his own life in Tulsa, Oklahoma. President Joe Biden will speak about gun violence Thursday night. And how two adoptive parents fought for their foster daughter until the bitter end.
👋 It’s your friend Laura Davis, and today is Thursday. That means today’s newsletter was partially written between breaks for watching the latest episode of “The Kardashians.” There’s a bunch of news, so let’s get going.
But first, what happened to the Megalodon? 🦈 A new study revealed the ocean’s most fearsome predator could have been driven to extinction by something a little more familiar: great white sharks.
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Tulsa gunman who killed 4 targeted doctor
A gunman who fatally shot four people at a Tulsa, Oklahoma, medical center targeted a doctor he blamed for the pain he was in after a back surgery, police said Thursday. Police Chief Wendell Franklin identified the victims as Dr. Preston Phillips, Dr. Stephanie Husen, receptionist Amanda Glenn and patient William Love. Franklin said Phillips performed the back surgery. The police chief said the gunman died of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound and had recently purchased firearms, including an AR-15-style rifle, used in the shooting Wednesday afternoon at the St. Francis Health System campus.
A dozen mass killings this year
It’s a grim, heartbreaking statistic: 76 people in the USA have died this year in a dozen mass killings – all shootings – including massacres in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas, according to The Associated Press/USA TODAY/Northeastern University mass killing database. President Joe Biden is set to deliver a speech Thursday on the “epidemic of gun violence” and ramp up his call for Congress to pass “common sense” gun measures. Biden has said Congress should renew a federal weapons ban and pass new background check requirements.
What everyone’s talking about
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👑 Waving hello to the queen!
The royal party has begun! In a familiar swirl of military color, precision and horsemanship, Britain kicked off Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations with the Trooping the Colour parade that saw the 96-year-old monarch appear – twice – for the first time in years on the balcony of Buckingham Palace. Dressed in a pale blue coat dress and hat, holding a cane and wearing shaded glasses, the queen looked happy and well, chatting to one of her great-grandchildren. Fighter jets flew in formation to create the number “70” in the sky over the palace in honor of the queen’s 70th year on the British throne, an unprecedented feat for the monarchy. The parade and pomp kicked off a host of elaborate plans, which include a four-day holiday weekend full of parties, pageants and concerts.
Is Russia’s economy on the brink of collapse?
Russia’s economy is falling apart, and “time is working” against its president, Vladimir Putin, German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck said Thursday. Since invading Ukraine more than three months ago, Russia has secured modest gains in its battle for control of the eastern Donbas region. Income from energy sales to Europe has played a major role in funding Russia’s war, and Habeck acknowledged that Russia has been aided by historically high energy prices and Europe’s inability to completely halt purchases. “We can only be ashamed that we haven’t yet managed to reduce this dependence more significantly,” said Habeck, who is also Germany’s economy minister. He said, “Putin is still getting money, but he can hardly spend it” because of Western sanctions.
👉 More news: Putin fires 5 more generals; Ukraine warns teachers in occupied areas not to work for Russians. Thursday’s updates.
Real quick
Adoptive parents’ quest to help foster daughter meets tragic end
For three years, Tina Chase and her husband, Mark, had waited for the day their foster daughter, Becca, would legally become theirs. Had they taken the time to imagine it, they might have pictured something like the adoption ceremony happening two floors above them: balloons, boisterous laughter and celebration. Instead, Mark and Tina quietly made their way through the building, Tina thinking back to all the delays to get Becca help. The months it took to schedule Becca’s first mental health evaluation. The years of pushing for intensive mental health services. How would this day have been if Becca had gotten those things sooner? Tina pressed a stack of picture frames to her chest as the elevator carried them to the third floor. She and Mark stood in the courtroom with their attorney, Becca’s best friend, her Girl Scout troop leader and a Department of Child Services family case manager. Only one person was missing: Becca. Read more here.
A break from the news
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