Families watch from a bridge as thousands of people enter the holy River Saryu in Ayodhya, India, Thursday, March 30, 2023. The United Nations says India will be the world’s most populous country by the end of April, eclipsing an aging China. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)
NEW DELHI (AP) — India will be the world’s most populous country by the end of this month, eclipsing an aging China, the United Nations said Monday. The milestone raises questions about whether India can repeat the economic success that has made China central to the world’s economy and a leading global power.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott says the gunman responsible for the Uvalde shooting Tuesday used an AR-15-style assault rifle. Here, three variations of the AR-15 are displayed at the California Department of Justice in Sacramento, Calif., in 2012.
The weapon used to carry out the mass shooting in Uvalde on Tuesday is one all too familiar to Americans and lawmakers who have witnessed mass shootings occur over the past decade.
The Uvalde gunman used an AR-15-style rifle, a popular range of semiautomatic weapons that was purchased from a sporting goods store, to carry out the attack, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and law enforcement officials said Wednesday.
This weapon is an AR-15 type called a DDM4 Rifle, which is manufactured by Daniel Defense, The Associated Press reported. The weapon reportedly retails from $400 to $2,000, the AP added.
While officials said the shooter, Salvador Ramos, purchased the gun, ammunition, and another weapon legally, the AR-15 and other guns like it have lingered on the minds of lawmakers for some time in terms of their legality.
In 1994, President Bill Clinton signed an assault-weapons ban, which banned the AR-15 and other similar semiautomatic rifles.
After its ban, mass shootings were down in the decade that followed, in comparison to the decade before (1984-94) and the one after (2004-14), NPR reported in 2018.
Once the assault-weapons ban expired 10 years later in 2004, gun manufacturers quickly began production and sales rose.
AR-15-style semiautomatic weapons are civilian versions of military weapons that gun control advocates say aren’t very different.
The AR-15, like its military version, is designed to kill people quickly and in large numbers, hence the term assault-style rifle, gun control advocates told NPR in 2018. They say it has no valid recreational use, and civilians should not be allowed to own them.
The gun industry, gun owners and their supporters on the other hand, say AR-15s are used for hunting, target practice and shooting competitions and should remain legal, NPR reported in 2018.
Such AR-15-style weapons are semiautomatic, meaning a shooter must pull the trigger to fire each shot from a magazine that typically carries 30 rounds.
A shooter with a fully automatic assault rifle can pull and hold the trigger and the weapon will fire until the ammunition supply is spent.
Fully automatic weapons have been heavily restricted in the U.S. since the 1934 National Firearms Act, which was directed against machine guns at the time, NPR reported.
The shooting in Uvalde has resurfaced calls for stricter gun laws.
Among those making these demands was former congressman Beto O’Rourke who interrupted Gov. Greg Abbott’s news conference in Uvalde on Wednesday, KUT reported.
O’Rourke was escorted outside, where he spoke with reporters.
“He’s refused to expand Medicaid, which would bring $10 billion a year, including mental health care access for people who need it,” O’Rourke said of Abbott, according to ABC. “He’s refused to champion red flag laws. … He’s refused to support safe-storage laws so young people cannot get their hands on their parents’ weapons.”
The following is a partial list of when an AR-15-style weapon was used in a mass shooting:Feb. 14, 2018: Shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Florida leaves 17 people dead.Oct. 1, 2017: The Las Vegas slaughter of 58 people.Nov. 5, 2017: The Sutherland Springs, Texas, church shooting that claimed 26 lives.June 12, 2016: The Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Fla., that left 49 dead.Dec. 2, 2015: The San Bernardino, Calif., shooting that killed 14 people.Dec. 14, 2012: The shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut that took 27 lives.
Eleven deer tested positive for chronic wasting disease (CWD) in Tensas Parish during the 2022-23 hunting season, bringing Louisiana’s total to 12 cases since the discovery of the disease in January of 2022. All 12 positive tests were in Tensas Parish.
A total of 2,370 hunter-harvested deer were tested for CWD in Louisiana during the 2022-23 season. The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) discovered the state’s first case of CWD in a hunter-harvested deer in Tensas Parish during the 2021-22 hunting season. LDWF established a CWD Control Area around the index case.
CWD is a neurodegenerative disease of white-tailed deer and other members of the family Cervidae. It is caused by a prion, an infectious, misfolded protein particle, and is 100 percent fatal in affected deer after an indeterminate incubation period.There is no treatment or preventative vaccine for CWD.
SEWARD, Alaska (KTUU) – Steller sea lions aren’t the easiest mammals for scientists to monitor. Rookeries are often on remote rocky outposts like Chiswell Island near Resurrection Bay, where remote monitoring cameras were set up about 25 years ago to study the marine mammals’ population trends.
But the cameras only go so far when it comes to researching marine mammals like Steller sea lions.
A recent study authored by Alaska SeaLife Center scientist John Maniscalco in the journal “Global Ecology and Conservation” studied Steller sea lions up close. By examining the scat remains of the creatures during and after the Pacific marine heatwave of the mid-2010s, Maniscalco found that the heatwave had…
Avian influenza detected in bears, cats, dogs in Canada and the USA
U.S. CDC H5N1 Bird Flu Detections April 19, 2023
(Precision Vaccinations)
A team of researchers hastrackedthe arrival and progression ofH5N1 bird flu (Avian influenza)outbreaksin Canada, Mexico, and the United States.
Led by the University of Maryland (UMD) researchers, this teamfound an unusual changefrom seasonal highly pathogenic avian influenza (HAPI) to year-round infections anda far more significant impact onbirds, mammals, and people.
“We’ve been dealing with low pathogenic avian influenza for decades in the poultry industry, but this is different,” commentedJennifer Mullinax, assistant professor in the UMD Department of Environmental Science and Technology and a co-author of the study, in a press release on April 19, 2023.
“This high pathogenic virus is wiping out everything in numbers that we’ve never seen before,” she added.
Watch out, northerners: The armadillos are coming.
What’s happening: The scaly critters have slowly but steadily expanded north from Texas for over a hundred years. Now their movement is rapidly accelerating.
Armadillo sightings in North Carolina are on the rise and the state’s Wildlife Resources Commission is trying to determine the extent of their range, Axios Raleigh co-author Zachery Eanes reports.
Zoom in: The mammals have been spotted recently as far north as Missouri, southern Illinois, Iowa and up to North Carolina, according to David Mizejewski, a naturalist at the National Wildlife Federation.
“The predictions are that with the current climate conditions, they’re going to keep expanding and they might even get up all the way into New England,” Mizejewski told Axios.
The big picture: Climate change will expand the footprint of many species. But others won’t be able to evolve and adapt fast enough to keep pace.
“What we’re seeing with climate change is that some species are able to expand their range — or at a minimum move their range northward,” Mizejewski says.
Zoom out: Nine-banded armadillos, the only species of the animal found in the U.S., typically live in the southeastern part of the country. The species was found no further north than Texas in the mid-19th century.
But their range has been expanding continually northward since the 1900s — and they haven’t reached the full extent of their possible range, according to the NWF. One study predicted they could eventually reach Massachusetts.
“The fact that our average temperatures are going up because of climate change has been the main reason why they’ve been able to expand north,” Mizejewski said.
There are other factors that contribute to armadillos’ growing range.
Nine-banded armadillos have a generalist diet. The creatures mostly eat insects, but they’re not picky.
Humans have also likely eliminated many potential predators.
Reality check: The northward migration is likely limited by the severity of cold weather, which the species does not have a strong tolerance for, according to the University of Michigan’s animal diversity program.
But as winter seasons become milder, nine-banded armadillos can continue their migration.
The species can survive for short periods of severe cold by staying in a burrow for several days.
They haven’t migrated into desert regions like New Mexico and other western states due to limited rainfall and sources of water, researchers say.
FILE – The bridge leading from Fort Myers to Pine Island, Fla., is seen heavily damaged in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian on Pine Island, Fla., Oct. 1, 2022. Changes in air patterns as the world warms will likely push more and nastier hurricanes up against the United States’ east and Gulf coasts, especially in Florida, a new study said. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)
The vast majority of U.S. adults have been personally affected by some form of extreme weather in the last five years, according to anew poll releasedon Saturday.
Seventy-one percent in the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll said they had experienced at least one extreme weather event in the last five years.
April 23 (Reuters) – More than 20 people were arrested at Saturday’s Scottish Grand National at Ayr, Scotland Police said, as major sporting events in the United Kingdom continue to be affected by protests.
“A large group of protesters climbed under and over fences and made their way towards the track,” assistant Chief Constable Tim Mairs said in a statement on Saturday. “Overall, there have been 25 arrests so far across the day and enquiries are continuing.”
Advertisement · Scroll to continue
Report an ad
The race was not delayed and was won by Kitty’s Light. Protest group Animal Rising said it was involved in the protests in a statement on social media.
Last week’s Grand National was delayed by animal rights protesters, with 118 people arrested, while a Just Stop Oil protestor halted the World Snooker Championship on Monday after he climbed on to a table and scattered a bag of orange powder paint over the green cloth playing surface.
Organisers of Sunday’s London Marathon have stepped up security to avoid protests, with environmental activist group Extinction Rebellion agreeing to help guard the race from disruption.
SHAREShare Article via FacebookShare Article via TwitterShare Article via LinkedInShare Article via Email
A man dressed as a tree walks on stilts past the Houses of Parliament at ‘The Big One’ environment event which coincides with “Earth Day”, in London, April 22, 2023.
Kevin Coombs | Reuters
Climate change campaigners gathered outside Britain’s parliament building ahead of Earth Day to urge action on global warming, while volunteers worldwide geared up to plant trees and clear trash to mark the 54th annual celebration of the environment.
Earth Day this year, officially on Saturday, follows weeks of extreme weather with temperatures soaring to record highs in Thailand and a punishing heatwave in India, where at least 13 people died of heatstroke at a ceremony last weekend.
Average global temperatures could hit all-time highs in 2023 or 2024, climate scientists have warned.
Half a dozen cows were found dead deep in the heart of Texas this past week — and some of the things that were done to their bodies are suggesting one culprit to some … aliens.
According toreports, the Madison County Sheriff’s Office — which is about an hour and a half north of Houston — detailed the mysterious tale Wednesday … including what had been done to the carcasses, like the removal of their tongues and flesh from parts of their faces.
The strange thing about this — besides the fact that the same thing had been done to all 6 of the dead cattle — is that the Sheriff’s Office there says no blood was spilled or left behind.
This story gets even weirder … apparently, the dead cows each belonged to different herds…
Exposing the Big Game 
