(NewsNation) — Six families are mourning the deaths of their loved ones this Thanksgiving after a gunman opened fire inside a Chesapeake, Virginia, Walmart Tuesday night.

Police said that 31-year-old Andre Bing, an overnight team lead at Walmart, opened fire on his fellow Walmart employees just after 10 p.m. ET and then allegedly shot and killed himself.

The six victims killed were identified as Lorenzo Gamble, Brian Pendleton, Kellie Pyle, Randall Blevins, Tyneka Johnson and a 16-year-old male whose name has not been released.

At least six other victims were transported to local hospitals for further medical treatment.

A local church in Chesapeake hosted a candlelight vigil on Wednesday to pray for those impacted by the mass shooting.

“A few of us can stop on behalf of everyone else and say this is not right. We don’t want this in our community,” said Rev. Mark McKone-Sweet.

“I came out because I hope when the families are able to come out they will see that there’s love, from all of us,” Tracey Barkley, a Chesapeake community member, said.

Chesapeake Police Chief Mark Solesky said Wednesday that the gunman used a pistol in the deadly mass shooting. Later, police said he was armed with one handgun and several magazines.

At the time of the shooting, at least 50 people are believed to have been inside the store.

SWAT teams searched Bing’s home Wednesday. Authorities told NewsNation affiliate WAVY that no additional weapons, nor a motive, were found. However, witnesses believe the attack was planned, saying Bing was laughing during the shooting.

However, one law enforcement source told WAVY that Bing had a manifesto on his phone. The source said the manifesto described how Bing was upset about the recent change in employment status and was being harassed about it by fellow employees.

The attack was the second time in a little more than a week that Virginia experienced a major shooting. Three University of Virginia football players were fatally shot on a charter bus as they returned to campus from a field trip on Nov. 13. Two other students were wounded.

The assault at the Walmart came days after a person opened fire at a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs, killing five people and wounding 17. 

NewsNation affiliate WAVY and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

Yuriy Shukhevych, a well-known Ukrainian dissident and political figure, has died at the age of 89. He passed way in Germany where he had been undergoing medical treatment.

Born on March 28, 1933 in the village of Ohliadiv, Lviv region, Yuriy Shukhevych was the son of Roman and Oleksandra Shukhevych. His father Roman was commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA).

Shukhevych came from a family of prominent Ukrainian public figures, ethnographers, publicists, newspaper editors and society organizers. The latter spanned representatives of the Lviv branch of the Prosvita (enlightenment) society, the Ruska Besida (Rus Talk) Ukrainian pedagogical society, the Boyana society and the Leontovych musical society.

A life not without challenge, Shukhevych spent a total of 28 years in prisons and camps that led to him suffering from incurable illnesses. However, they never broke his spirit and he was a man of great will who lived, cared and struggled for Ukraine until his last breath.

Formative years and prison sentences

At the tender age of 11, Shukhevych and his mother were arrested and sent to Siberia. At that time, his father commanded the UPA and headed the secretariat of the Ukrainian Main Liberation Council.

In 1946, Shukhevych was put in a special boarding house for children of “enemies of the people” in the Donbas region. He escaped twice but was caught both times and brought back to the house.

In 1948, aged 15, he was sentenced to ten years in prison, exclusively for his father’s “anti-Soviet activity.”

After six years in a Soviet prison, Shukhevych was released under the newly adopted law on juvenile amnesty, but shortly afterwards found himself behind bars again. When his ten-year prison term expired, new charges were brought against him supposedly corroborated by “witness accounts” of provocateurs and prison guards. He was sentenced to another ten years which he spent in high-security colonies and labor camps.

Short-lived freedom and health deterioration

In August 1968, Shukhevych was released but forbidden from living in Ukraine. He settled in the township of Nalchik, in the Kabardino-Balkar Autonomous Republic of the USSR and worked there as an electrician.

In the spring of 1972, he was arrested again and sentenced to nine years in prison and five years in exile.

While in pre-trial custody, he wrote a scathing letter to the United Nations in which he condemned the Soviet totalitarian regime that killed citizens for their national self-awareness. The letter somehow managed to reach the addressee, but a copy was found in his cell during a search and, in 1973, another year was added to his sentence. The KGB tried to persuade him to repent and cooperate, but he refused.

The horrible conditions of imprisonment and exile severely undermined Shukhevych’s health. He demanded medical examination and treatment but was denied every time and subjected to further punishment. In 1981, he lost most of his sight and an eye surgery in a prison hospital in Leningrad proved unsuccessful.

Hero of Ukraine

In October 1989, Shukhevych finally returned to Lviv.

After Ukraine achieved independence in 1991, he visited Western European countries, the U.S. and Canada at the invitation of local Ukrainian communities, then eventually returned to Lviv once again.

In 2005, Shukhevych was elected leader of the Ukrainian National Assembly (UNA) and commander of the Ukrainian National Self-Defense (UNSO) – a position he held until 2014 when he was elected to the Ukrainian parliament from the Radical Party.

There, he initiated and authored the law on the legal status and commemoration of 20^th century fighters for Ukrainian independence. He actively advocated for decommunization and was a key proponent of new laws to this effect that were passed in 2015.

In August 2006, then President Viktor Yushchenko awarded Yuriy Shukhevych the title of Hero of Ukraine.

Shukhevych died in Munich on the night of Nov. 21-22.

The post Yuriy Shukhevych, Political Figure and Dissident, Dies at 89 appeared first on Kyiv Post.

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky called for the adoption of a UN resolution condemning energy terror.

“The Security Council should provide a clear assessment of the actions of the terrorist state in accordance with Chapter Seven of the UN Charter. Ukraine proposes that the Security Council adopt such a resolution condemning any forms of energy terror. Let’s see if anyone in the world will be able to say, along with Russia, that terror against civilians is supposedly a good thing,” he said, speaking via video link on Wednesday, Nov. 24, to a special meeting of the UN Security Council.

“I confirm the invitation from Ukraine regarding the mission of UN experts to critical infrastructure facilities of our country that have been or may be hit by Russian missiles. It is necessary to give a proper assessment of damage and destruction,” he also said.

Zelensky said “the terrorist state should not participate in any voting on the issues of its aggression, its terror. It is a stalemate when the one who caused the war, the one responsible for the terror, blocks any attempt by the UN Security Council to fulfill its mandate.”

“This is nonsense that the veto right is reserved for the one who is waging a criminal war. It is necessary to lead the world out of this impasse. It is absolutely possible. The world should not be held hostage by one international terrorist. Russia is doing everything to make the electric generator a more powerful and necessary tool than the UN Charter. We must and can return real meaning to all things – and above all to the UN Charter,” the president said.

The post Ukraine Calls for UN Security Council Resolution Condemning Energy Terror appeared first on Kyiv Post.

The National Anti-corruption Bureau says People’s Deputy of the Verkhovna Rada’s 9th convocation Mykhailo Volynets, who is suspected of filing false information into the e-declaration register, has been declared wanted.

That’s according to the Bureau’s press service.

The legislator’s proceeds over 2020 that NABU is challenging are worth “almost UAH 1.79 million,” the statement says.

The Bureau recalled that it had officially pressed charges against the lawmaker on November 17. The inquiry believes that in the declaration for 2020, the MP failed to report two vehicles that he used and which are owned by his close relatives, as well as the income of his common-law wife in the amount of almost UAH 95,000. In general, the amount of undeclared property is more than 786 times higher than the subsistence minimum for able-bodied persons.

Earlier, the Specialized Anti-corruption Office filed a lawsuit for civil confiscation of Volynets’ assets. The law enforcers came to the conclusion that in 2020 the MP acquired a three-room apartment in Kyiv, while failing to report the origin of nearly UAH 3 million for that purchase.

He did not have enough money for the purchase, given the size of the deputy’s legal income. However, the High Anti-Corruption Court overruled the motion to seize the deputy’s property. The judgment was upheld by the court’s Appeals Chamber.

The post NABU Puts MP Volynets on Wanted List appeared first on Kyiv Post.

The European Parliament supported the proposal of the European Commission to allocate EUR 18 billion to Ukraine in 2023 by voting on the relevant amendments to regulatory acts that will allow the implementation of the new Macro-Financial Assistance Plus (MFA+) formula. Now this proposal must be approved by the European Council.

The vote took place on Thursday,  Nov, 24, in Strasbourg as part of the EP plenary session.

A total of 571 deputies voted: some 507 “for,” some 38 “against” and some 26 “abstained.”

In particular, three documents were voted in the package: two amendments and the direct proposal of the European Commission. The amendments have been made to the EU Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-2027 and the Financial Directive and are aimed at changing the approach to macro financial guarantees: if previously funding was allocated under the guarantees of member states in case the macro financial aid’s recipient state is not able to repay loans, then after approval by the EU Parliament will be able to allocate to Ukraine on the same terms as for the EU member states – under the guarantees of the European Union budget.

The third document voted by the EP entitled “Proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and Council establishing an instrument for providing support to Ukraine for 2023 (Macro-Financial Assistance Plus). This document must then be approved by the European Council, and must be signed by two presidents – the European Parliament and the European Council. The document itself has 39 pages and contains a detailed description of the mechanism for allocating EUR 18 billion to Ukraine.

The Council is expected to make a decision on December 6.

The post European Parliament supports EC’s proposal to provide Ukraine with EUR 18 bln in 2023 appeared first on Kyiv Post.

Donald Trump was sued for defamation a second time on Thursday by a writer who accused the former U.S. president of lying by denying that he raped her 27 years ago.

In a complaint filed in Manhattan federal court, the former Elle magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll also accused Trump of battery in an alleged encounter at the Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan.

Carroll, 78, brought the battery claim under New York’s Adult Survivors Act, a new law giving sexual assault victims a one-year window to sue their alleged abusers, even if the abuse occurred long ago and statutes of limitations have expired.

Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, was the first day that accusers could sue.

Trump, 76, has denied raping Carroll or knowing her at the time, and said she was “not my type.”

His first denial in June 2019 prompted her to sue for defamation five months later.

He repeated the denial in an Oct. 12 post on his Truth Social account, calling Carroll’s claim a “hoax” and “lie,” prompting the new defamation claim.

Both sides are awaiting appeals court decisions addressing Trump’s argument that he was legally immune from Carroll’s first lawsuit because he had spoken in his capacity as president.

If courts agreed that the U.S. government, which has sovereign immunity from defamation claims, could be substituted for Trump as a defendant, Carroll’s first lawsuit would fail.

That would likely not affect her second lawsuit because Trump is a private citizen, having left the White House in January 2021.

Carroll is seeking unspecified damages. To support her battery claim, she said Trump caused her lasting psychological harm, and left her unable to sustain a romantic relationship.

The first lawsuit is scheduled for trial on Feb. 6, 2023, before U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan, but will likely be delayed because of the appeals process.

At a hearing on Tuesday, Carroll’s lawyer Roberta Kaplan asked for an April 10 trial covering both lawsuits, saying they have substantial overlap.

Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba sought a May 8 trial for only the first lawsuit. She also told the judge a longer delay made sense because Trump had not hired a lawyer for the second lawsuit.

“Your client in the present action, Ms. Habba, has known this was coming for months, and he would be well-advised to decide who is representing him in it,” the judge responded.

Judge Kaplan said he may decide early next week how to schedule both lawsuits.

Malaysia’s new prime minister, 75-year-old Anwar Ibrahim, was sworn in on Thursday, bringing to a close his three-decade quest for the job that had eluded him time and again and led to him spending nearly a decade in jail.

As opposition leader, Anwar led tens of thousands of Malaysians in street protests in the 1990s against his mentor-turned-foe Mahathir Mohamad.

Anwar started off as a firebrand Islamic youth leader before joining then prime minister Mahathir’s United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), which leads the Barisan Nasional alliance.

His strained relationship with the veteran leader shaped Anwar’s own career, as well as Malaysia’s political landscape, for nearly three decades.

Anwar’s appointment as prime minister brings an end to a political crisis after an election on Saturday ushered in an unprecedented hung parliament. While Anwar’s progressive bloc won the most seats in parliament, it fell short of a majority.

Between stints as deputy prime minister in the 1990s and as official prime minister-in-waiting in 2018, Anwar spent nearly a decade in jail for sodomy and corruption on charges he says were politically motivated.

Mahathir had called Anwar his friend and protege, and anointed him his successor, but later, amid criminal charges and disagreements over how to handle the Asian financial crisis in 1998, he said Anwar was unfit to lead “because of his character”.

The two buried the hatchet briefly in 2018 to oust from power the political alliance they once belonged to – only to fall out again within two years, ending their 22-month-old government and plunging Malaysia into a period of instability.

Anwar told Reuters in an interview before the election that he would seek “to emphasize governance and anti-corruption, and rid this country of racism and religious bigotry”.

For decades, Anwar has called for inclusiveness and an overhaul of the political system in the multi-ethnic country.

About 70% of the population of nearly 33 million comprises ethnic Malays, who are mainly Muslim, and indigenous groups with ethnic Chinese and Indians account for the rest.

Anwar called for the removal of policies favouring Malays and an end to a patronage system that had kept Malaysia’s longest ruling coalition, the Barisan Nasional, in power.

His rallying cry of ‘reformasi’, or reforms, resonated nationwide, and is still the main promise of his alliance.
HOW HAVE MALAYSIANS REACTED?

Anwar’s supporters expressed hope that their charismatic leader’s government would head off a return to historic tension between the ethnic Malay, Muslim majority and ethnic Chinese and Indian minorities.

“All we want is moderation for Malaysia and Anwar represents that,” said a communications manager in Kuala Lumpur, who asked to be identified by her surname Tang.

“We can’t have a country that is divided by race and religion as that will set us back another 10 years.”

Authorities warned after the weekend vote of a rise in ethnic tension on social media and short video platform TikTok said it was on high alert for content that violated its guidelines.

“Always regarded as the man who could unite all warring factions, it is fitting that Anwar emerged during a divisive time,” said political analyst James Chai, a visiting fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in neighbouring Singapore.