Day 1324: "It doesn’t have to be this way."

WTF Just Happened Today

Wednesday, September 4, 2024

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1/ A 14-year-old killed two students, two teachers, and left at least nine more hospitalized after a mass shooting at a Georgia high school. Colt Gray will be charged with murder and tried as an adult. The high school reportedly received a phone call warning that there would be shootings at five schools, and that Apalachee High School would be the first. Biden called the shooting “another horrific reminder of how gun violence continues to tear our communities apart.” Kamala Harris added that “This is just a senseless tragedy on top of so many senseless tragedies, and it’s just outrageous that everyday in our country, in the United States of America, that parents have to send their children to school, worried about whether or not their child will come home alive […] We’ve got to stop it, and we have to end this epidemic of gun violence in our country once and for all. You know it doesn’t have to be this way.” Before today, there had been 29 mass killings in the U.S. so far this year. Last year, there were 217 deaths from 42 mass killings in the U.S. – one of the deadliest years on record for such shootings in the country. [Editor’s note: This is breaking news and will be updated as additional reporting becomes available.] (Associated Press / Washington Post / Politico / CNN / New York Times / NBC News / NPR / CBS News)

• There have been 416 school shootings since the Columbine High massacre in 1999. More than 382,000 students have experienced gun violence at school since Columbine. (Washington Post)

2/ The Biden administration accused Putin of orchestrating a campaign to influence the 2024 U.S. presidential election, help Trump win, and erode international support for Ukraine. The Justice Department charged two Russian media executives and seized 32 web domains that it said were part of a broad, ongoing effort by the Russian government to spread propaganda. The two employees of RT – a Russian state-controlled media outlet – covertly funded a Tennessee-based company with nearly $10 million “to publish and disseminate content deemed favorable to the Russian government” on social media. The nearly 2,000 videos have gotten more than 16 million views on YouTube alone, prosecutors said. “The Justice Department’s message is clear: We have no tolerance for attempts by authoritarian regimes to exploit our democratic system of government,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said. The Treasury Department also sanctioned 10 individuals and two entities in response to “Moscow’s malign influence efforts targeting the 2024 U.S. presidential election.” (Associated Press / Washington Post / Wall...

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