Top Stories
TOP STORY
TOP STORY
I-75 suspect vows to ‘kill a lot of people’
A man suspected of shooting five people on a Kentucky interstate texted a woman ahead of the attack, warning of his plan to “kill a lot of people.”
The woman called 911 after receiving the text, says the warrant for his arrest.
Authorities are continuing to search for Couch, 32, who has evaded capture since Saturday afternoon.
Authorities say he fired an AR-15 from a cliff ledge on the side of the interstate about nine miles north of London, Kentucky, striking 12 cars and wounding five people.
On the day of the shooting, Couch bought an AR-15 with a sight and 1,000 rounds, paying almost $3,000, the warrant says. The sheriff’s office said he made the purchases legally.
The arrest warrant charges Couch with five counts of attempted murder and five counts of first-degree assault. Police are employing drones, helicopters, dogs, and dozens of officers.
LAW
LAW
Court told Google tried dominating ad tech
Google sought to dominate all online advertising technology by controlling competitors and customers, a court was told.
Prosecutors are seeking to show Google used dominant positions in technology for publishers and advertisers to keep them from other tools and undercut bids placed through competitors.
The Justice Department's antitrust division said Google relied on classic monopoly-building tactics of eliminating competitors through acquisitions, locking customers into its products, and controlling how transactions occurred in the online ad market.
Google's lead attorney, Karen Dunn, said the case was built on “ancient history.” The case is “like a time capsule that if you broke it open, you would find a BlackBerry, an iPod and a Blockbuster video card.”
US District Judge Leonie Brinkema is hearing the case without a jury and will issue a ruling after the multi-week trial concludes. If Google loses, she would consider prosecutors' request to make it sell off, at minimum, Google Ad Manager, a platform that includes Google's publisher ad server and its ad exchange.
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WORLD
WORLD
Artifacts looted from Sudan museum
Thousands of artifacts have been looted from a Sudanese museum regarded as one of the most important in Africa.
An official at the National Museum in Khartoum said satellite images taken last year showed trucks loaded with artifacts leaving the museum and heading for Sudan’s borders. Earlier, Sudan’s national broadcaster reported the museum was targeted by “a large-scale looting and smuggling operation.”
Its collection of more than 100,000 items includes embalmed mummies dating from 2500 B.C., statues, pottery and ancient murals, with artifacts from the Stone Age through to the Christian and Islamic eras.
The museum is located in an area controlled by the Rapid Support Forces, the paramilitary group battling the regular army in Sudan’s civil war. It has denied its fighters looted institutions.
Staff had been forced to abandon the site shortly after fighting erupted between the RSF and the army in April last year. Thousands have been killed since the war began, 8 million have been displaced internally, and a further 2 million have fled to neighboring countries.
POLITICS
POLITICS
Russia picks social media stars to sway voters
US officials say Russia is turning to American social media stars to influence voters covertly ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
“What we see them doing is relying on witting and unwitting Americans to seed, promote and add credibility to narratives that serve these foreign actors’ interest,” a senior intelligence official said. “These foreign countries typically calculate that Americans are more likely to believe other Americans’ views.”
The approach is widely viewed by American security agencies as one of Russia’s preferred tactics this cycle to make their foreign psychological operations appear more authentic.
Broadly, these missions typically seek to anger Americans, highlight societal divisions and emphasize partisan talking points while questioning the US government’s effectiveness and role in global security, experts say.
The Justice Department last week revealed criminal charges against two former employees of Russian media outlet Russia Today, who they say were covertly funding an American political media company.
The indictment outlines an alleged scheme where the Russians sent about $10 million to two media business owners, Lauren Chen and Liam Donovan, who then paid American conservative influencers to create videos and social media posts.
SCIENCE
SCIENCE
China aims for Mars mission ‘around 2028’
China could start its Mars program as soon as 2028, two years earlier than stated, said a senior mission official.
A 2028 target appears to return to a launch plan described in 2022 by a senior scientist involved with the Tianwen program — a mission profile that would see samples returned to Earth by 2031.
Becoming the first country to return samples from Mars would be a significant accomplishment for China’s ambitious space program and leader Xi Jinping’s stated “eternal dream” to make the country a space power.
A key priority of China’s Tianwen-3 mission would be to search for traces of life on Mars. The mission would also attempt technical breakthroughs in surface sampling, takeoff and ascent from the Martian surface, and a spacecraft rendezvous in Mars’ orbit, Liu said last week.
OTHER NEWS
OTHER NEWS
Nearly half of doctors sexually harassed
Almost half of doctors internationally have been sexually harassed by patients, prompting calls for alarms to repel such behavior.
Over half (52.2%) of female doctors have experienced sexual harassment, and their male counterparts 34.4%, says a report in a medical journal.
Doctors are subjected to many types of sexual harassment, including unwanted sexual attention and patients telling jokes of a sexual nature, asking them out on dates, touching them inappropriately and sending them romantic messages or letters.
Medics also have to contend with people they are treating revealing body parts to them or having an inappropriate reaction, such as an erection, or making sexual comments to them during a physical examination.
The findings emerged from a meta-analysis of 22 published research papers. Of seven countries deemed to have reliable evidence, the harassment was highest in the UK, followed by Canada, Australia, the US, Israel, Germany and Malaysia.
Researcher Dr Caroline Kamau-Mitchell recommended “hospitals and clinics take these findings seriously, giving doctors who work in isolated wards, on night shifts or alone protection such as CCTV and panic alarms.”
OFFBEAT
OFFBEAT
Golden eagle attacks humans 4 times
A golden eagle is suspected of attacking four people across a mountainous area of southern Norway over the last week.
After an assault on a toddler Saturday that required stitches, the bird was killed. The golden eagle is Norway's second-largest bird of prey, with a wingspan of about 6.5 feet. It usually concerns itself with smaller animals, as well as foxes and sheep.
Two days before, a 31-year-old bicycle courier was attacked in the face and arms over 10 to 15 minutes as he sprinted down a mountain. At first, he thought a human was trying to shove him down the steep Norwegian mountainside. Then he saw the golden eagle land.
Mariann Myrvang said she cried out for help when “something big and heavy” landed on her shoulders when she was attacked on Wednesday, “I went down on my knees because I couldn’t stand up.”
The golden eagle “likely had a behavioral disorder” that prompted the aggression, said Alv Ottar Folkestad, an eagle expert with BirdLife Norge. “Details in the plumage make me believe it is the same bird.”
Otherweb Editorial Staff
Alex FinkTechie in Chief
David WilliamsEditor in Chief
Angela PalmerContent Manager
Dan KriegerTechnical Director