BBC News Briefing

5 September, 2024

Sofia Lotto Persio

Hello. The city of Winder, in the US state of Georgia, is the latest American town hit by a deadly school shooting. My colleagues detail how the 14-year-old suspect had previously caught the authorities' attention. In Greenland, Adrienne Murray reports on an anti-whaling campaigner facing extradition to Japan. BBC Hindi's Saiyed Moziz Imam and India correspondent Soutik Biswas look into a spate of wolf attacks spreading panic in the state of Uttar Pradesh. Finally, in New Zealand, a new Māori queen is crowned.

TOP OF THE AGENDA

Suspect quizzed about threats last year

A woman wearing a pink backpack holds a young girl's hand as they watch a fleet of emergency vehicles parked on the other side of the road.

Officers first received reports of a shooting at the school of around 1,900 pupils at about 10:20 local time. Credit: Getty Images

The FBI said a 14-year-old suspect in the deadly shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, had previously caught police interest over anonymous online threats. Colt Gray, who was 13 at the time, denied to police in May 2023 he was behind internet posts that contained images of guns, warning of a school shooting. The FBI said officials "alerted local schools for continued monitoring of the subject". In a news conference, Georgia Bureau of Investigation director Chris Hosey said the gun used on Wednesday was an "AR-platform style weapon". Winder, a city located 50 miles from downtown Atlanta, is now mourning the deaths of four people killed on Wednesday, while another nine are being treated for injuries.

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How shooting unfolded: Pupils who were at the school at the time of the shooting say they saw a boy pull out a "big gun" before starting to shoot.

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Victims named: Police have identified those who died as teachers Christina Irimie and Richard Aspinwall and 14-year-old students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo.

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Exploring the data: There have been more than 385 mass shootings across the US so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

WORLD HEADLINES

War in Gaza: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted that Israeli forces will not leave the strategically important Philadelphi Corridor along Gaza's border with Egypt. Meanwhile, in the occupied West Bank, a funeral has been held for a Palestinian girl reportedly killed by Israeli forces.

Disinformation efforts: The US has charged and sanctioned Russian state media executives and restricted Kremlin-linked broadcasters as it accuses Moscow of a campaign to interfere with the presidential election.

Shooting in Munich: An armed man has been fatally shot by German police in the Bavarian city's Karolinenplatz, a square near a Nazi documentation centre and the Israeli consulate.

Rebecca Cheptegei: The Ugandan Olympic athlete has died days after being doused in petrol and set on fire by a former boyfriend in Kenya, an Ugandan official said.

Gillian Anderson: The Sex Education actor speaks to culture and media editor Katie Razzall about her new book, Want, a collection of women’s sexual fantasies.

AT THE SCENE

Nuuk, Greenland

Activist faces extradition to Japan

Paul Watson has medium-long white hair and a white beard. He wears a blue jacket and a white shirt and jeans as he speaks to reporters outside the court.

Mr Watson's defence team have appealed against the decision to keep him in custody. Credit: Adrienne Murray/BBC

Anti-whaling campaigner Paul Watson has been told he must remain in custody pending a decision to extradite him to Japan. He was arrested in Greenland's capital Nuuk in July. Authorities were acting on a 2012 Japanese warrant resulting from an encounter between Mr Watson and a Japanese whaling ship in Antarctic waters in February 2010.

Adrienne Murray, BBC News

Dressed in jeans and a white shirt, Mr Watson sat beside his defence lawyers and listened to proceedings through an interpreter as several of his supporters looked on. “This is about revenge for a television show that extremely embarrassed Japan in the eyes of the world,” he told the small courtroom. The prosecution argued that the defendant was a flight risk, and the judge concluded he should remain in custody until 2 October.

Keep reading

BEYOND THE HEADLINES

Child-killing wolves spark panic in India

Three light brown wolves are pictures standing over a rock

It is unclear whether the ongoing attacks are by a lone wolf or a pack. Credit: Getty Images

Since mid-April, a spate of wolf attacks has terrorised around 30 villages in Bahraich district, near the border with Nepal. Nine children and an adult have been carried off and killed by the wolves in what is thought to be the fourth wave of wolf attacks in Uttar Pradesh in four decades.

Find out more

A still from Joker: Folie à Deux starring Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga

SOMETHING DIFFERENT

It's no joke

Joker: Folie à Deux is a "dreary slog", writes our critic Nicholas Barber.

Read his review

And finally...

A new queen was crowned as the eighth Māori monarch in New Zealand as Kiingi Tuheitia Pōtatau Te Wherowhero VII was laid to rest. Twenty-seven-year-old Ngā Wai hono i te pō sat in front of her father's coffin, wearing a wreath and a cloak as prayers and chants were performed ahead of his burial at an emotional ceremony in Tûrangawaewae Marae, the seat of the Kiingitanga or Māori king movement. Take a look.

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– Sofia

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