Good morning.
The white gunman accused of the massacre of 10 Black people at a Buffalo supermarket wrote as far back as November about staging a livestreamed attack on African Americans. He also practised shooting from his car and traveled hours to scout out the store in March, according to diary entries he appears to have posted online.
The diary includes tallies of the number of Black people he counted there. It came to light two days after 18-year-old Payton Gendron allegedly opened fire with an AR-15-style rifle at the Tops Friendly Market. He was wearing a helmet camera to livestream the shootings on the internet, authorities said.
Meanwhile, a shooting at an Orange county church on Sunday left southern California reeling when a gunman motivated by hate for Taiwanese people fired on congregants who managed to put a stop to the bloodshed.
Authorities on Monday identified the suspect, who is accused of killing one person and wounding five others at the Geneva Presbyterian church, as David Chou of Las Vegas. Police said the motive of the shooting was a grievance between Chou, identified as a Chinese immigrant, and the Taiwanese community.
What’s happening to Gendron? He surrendered and was arraigned on a murder charge over the weekend. He pleaded not guilty and was jailed under a suicide watch. Federal authorities are contemplating bringing hate crime charges.
How about Chou? He is expected to appear in state court today and it was not immediately clear whether he had an attorney who could speak on his behalf. A federal hate crime investigation is also ongoing.
‘I look at my government differently’: losses in Ukraine test Russians’ faith
The satellite and drone imagery from above Bilohorivka tells a tale of folly and destruction. Dozens of Russian tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and trucks lay destroyed, some sinking into the waters of the Donets River by a broken pontoon bridge, pointing to the latest disaster in Russia’s three-month war in Ukraine.
The toll of Russia’s attempts to cross the river, part of its costly offensive in the east, is staggering: more than 485 killed and up to 80 vehicles destroyed, according to one estimate, although no numbers of casualties have been confirmed.
As Russia continues to hide the scale of its losses in Ukraine, more information has been leaked, angering the families of Russian soldiers and discouraging even previous supporters of the invasion, write Andrew Roth and Pjotr Sauer.
“I look at my government totally different since the war started,” said Tatyana Efremenko, 39, whose son Nikita Efremenko was a conscript on the Moskva missile cruiser when it was sunk in a Ukrainian missile strike one month ago.
Are Finland and Sweden going to join Nato? They want to but Turkey has said it will not approve their membership. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the Turkish president, said the countries should not bother sending diplomatic delegations to try to persuade them.
What’s happening at the Mariupol steelworks? More than 260 Ukrainian soldiers, many of them wounded, have finally been evacuated from the besieged Azovstal steel plant, appearing to cede control of the city to Russia after 82 days of bombardment.
What else is happening? Here’s what we know on day 83 of the invasion.
Pro-Israel lobbying group Aipac secretly pouring millions into defeating progressive Democrats
The US’s most powerful pro-Israel lobby group is pouring millions of dollars into influencing Democratic congressional primary races to counter growing support for the Palestinian cause within the party, including elections today in Pennsylvania and North Carolina.
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s money is focused on blocking female candidates who, if elected, are likely to align with “the squad” of progressive members of congress who have been critical of Israel.
But it is funneled through a group, the United Democracy Project (UDP), that avoids mention of its creation by Aipac and seeks to decide elections by funding campaign messages about issues other than Israel.
The UDP has thrown $2.3m into Tuesday’s Democratic primary race for an open congressional seat in Pennsylvania – one of a handful of contests targeted by the group where a leading candidate is overtly sympathetic to the Palestinians.
How has the money been spent? The money has mostly been spent in support of a former Republican congressional staffer turned Democrat, Steve Irwin, in an attempt to block a progressive state representative, Summer Lee.
In other news …
As Democrats have denounced the supreme court’s provisional decision to overturn Roe and vowed to defend abortion rights, their efforts at the federal level have largely failed to live up to their rhetoric. At a protest last week, abortion rights demonstrators chanted: “Do something, Democrats.”
The baby formula maker Abbott has reached an agreement with US health regulators to restart production during a nationwide formula shortage that has left shelves bare and parents scrambling. However, it will be well over a month before any products ship from the site to help alleviate the situation.
Japan is to start conducting “test tourism” in the form of limited package tours in May before a full reopening. Though tourism was a major pillar of Japan’s economy, tourists have not been permitted to enter since it adopted strict border controls in 2020 at the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
The top Catholic clergyman in the Holy Land has condemned the Israeli police beating of mourners carrying the casket of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh, accusing the authorities of violating human rights and disrespecting the Catholic church.
Don’t miss this: what I learned about street harassment after I transitioned
“As children, we are generally taught not to talk to strangers or to stare at other people. And I know that most people are capable of following these norms because that is what I experienced as an adult before my transition. When I moved through the world as male, it was extremely rare for anyone to attempt to speak to me or garner my attention,” writes Julia Serano. “But upon being perceived as female, I felt bombarded by such interruptions.”
Climate check: shut down fossil fuel production sites early to avoid climate chaos, says study
Nearly half of existing fossil fuel production sites need to be shut down early if global heating is to be limited to 1.5C, the internationally agreed goal for avoiding climate catastrophe, according to a scientific study. The researchers found fields and mines that had been developed would lead to 936bn tonnes of CO2 when fully exploited and burned. That is 25 years of global emissions at today’s rate – the world’s scientists agree emissions must fall by half by 2030.
Last Thing: who owns Einstein? The battle for the world’s most famous face
Thanks to a savvy California lawyer, Albert Einstein has earned far more posthumously than he ever did in his lifetime. But is that what the great scientist would have wanted? The theoretical physicist had fought any attempts to use his name and likeness as a promotional gimmick. In death, his likeness has been attached to everything from frisbees to snow globes for a frisson of intellectual glamour. Now Einstein is unable to protest, many companies around the world seem keen to profit from him.
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