US Business

A gunman killed at least four people Wednesday at a hospital campus in Tulsa, Oklahoma, police said, the latest mass shooting to convulse America coming as Texas families bury their dead after a school massacre barely one week ago.

The suspect, who was armed with a rifle and a handgun, was also killed in the attack at the St. Francis Health System hospital campus, police said.

“Right now we have four civilians that are dead, we have one shooter that is dead, and right now we believe that is self-inflicted,” Tulsa Police Department Deputy Chief Eric Dalgleish.

He said officers responded immediately after emergency calls came in that a shooter had stormed into the second floor of a clinic attached to St. Francis. Police went floor by floor, room by room in an effort to clear the building during what authorities described as an active shooter situation.

Earlier, Tulsa police Captain Richard Meulenberg said officers were treating the scene as “catastrophic,” with “several” people shot and “multiple injuries.”

It was not clear how many other people might have been injured. 

Dalgleish said the entire assault from the moment emergency calls came in to the time officers engaged the shooter lasted about four minutes.

US President Joe Biden has been briefed on the Tulsa shooting, the White House said in a statement, adding that the administration has offered support to local officials.

– Uvalde funerals –

Elizabeth Buchner, a legal assistant who lives behind the clinic where the shooting occurred, said she rushed out of her house when she heard helicopters and more loud commotion coming from the direction of the hospital.

“It was the most law enforcement I’ve ever seen at one place in my entire life,” Buchner, 43, told AFP by telephone.

She said she witnessed a tactical team rush inside one of the buildings, part of a response that she described as “fast and strong,” with “no hesitation.”

The shooting is the latest in a string of deadly assaults by gunmen that have rocked the United States in the past month.

On May 14 a white supremacist targeting African Americans killed 10 people at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York. The shooter survived and is facing charges.

Ten days later an 18-year-old gunman armed with an AR-15 burst into an elementary school in the small Texas town of Uvalde and killed 21 people — 19 of them young children — before being shot dead by law enforcement.

On Wednesday one of the two teachers killed in that attack was laid to rest in Uvalde, a day after the first funerals for the children.

Gun regulation faces deep resistance in the United States, from most Republicans and some rural-state Democrats.

But Biden — who visited Uvalde over the weekend — vowed earlier this week to “continue to push” for reform, saying: “I think things have gotten so bad that everybody is getting more rational about it.”

Some key federal lawmakers have also voiced cautious optimism and a bipartisan group of senators worked through the weekend to pursue possible areas of compromise.

They reportedly were focusing on laws to raise the minimum age for gun purchases or to allow police to remove guns from people considered a threat to themselves or others — but not on an outright ban on high-powered rifles like the weapons used in Uvalde and Buffalo.

Bill Cosby faced sexual assault allegations at a new civil trial in California Wednesday, where opening statements addressed an alleged attack on a teenage girl at the Playboy Mansion almost 50 years ago.

The case is one of the few remaining legal actions against Cosby, 84, who has been accused of assault by dozens of women. He was jailed in 2018, but was freed last year when his conviction in a separate criminal case was overturned.

Judy Huth, plaintiff in the new California case, alleges the veteran comic once known as “America’s Dad” met her in 1975 when she was 16, plied her with alcohol, took her to the Los Angeles mansion owned by Playboy founder Hugh Hefner and sexually assaulted her in a bedroom.

“Immediately after she sat down (on the bed) he pounced… He started trying to put his hands down her pants,” attorney Nathan Goldberg told the jury.

When she told him she was on her period, Cosby exposed his penis and forced her to masturbate him, Goldberg said in his opening statement.

But Cosby’s lawyers denied any assault, and questioned Huth’s description of events after the accuser changed her account of the date it took place, from 1974 to 1975.

“It’s not just a little mistake,” attorney Jennifer Bonjean said. “It’s evidence of a fabrication.”

Having not been ordered to testify in person, Cosby does not plan to attend proceedings in California and remains at home in New York, his spokesman told AFP. He has given a video deposition.

– ‘A planner’ –

Huth first filed her lawsuit claiming sexual battery and infliction of emotional distress in 2014, when allegations against Cosby from other women had just begun to emerge.

“It was like a cork popped out of a bottle,” said Goldberg. “Memories came rushing to the surface… she became overwhelmed by memories of Mr Cosby and what he had done.”

California law allows adults who say they were sexually abused as minors, but have only recently become aware of the damage, to bring civil cases years after the statute of limitations would normally have expired.

Huth’s case was put on hold for Cosby’s separate criminal trial, and when Cosby was found guilty in 2018 “it was like closure for her,” said Goldberg.

But that conviction — which made him the first celebrity jailed for sexual assault during the #MeToo era — was overturned on a technicality last June, and a judge ruled Huth’s civil case could move forward.

Huth’s lawyer Goldberg said two other women allegedly assaulted in 1975 by Cosby will testify at the trial, and pointed out similarities in how Cosby had used his celebrity status to meet the then-teenagers.

“He meets them under circumstances that don’t seem threatening… He takes them to places they’d not feel threatened,” said Goldberg.

“In each case his intention is to have unconsented-to sex.

“He’s a planner… Why is he hanging around with these young kids?”

Cosby was once a towering figure in late-20th century American popular culture, and hit the big time as affable obstetrician and father Cliff Huxtable on “The Cosby Show,” which ran from 1984-92. 

But around 60 women, many of them onetime aspiring actresses and models, have publicly branded Cosby as a calculating, serial predator who plied victims with sedatives and alcohol to bed them over four decades.

The trial is expected to last around two weeks.

Meta’s second most powerful executive Sheryl Sandberg made the shock announcement Wednesday she will leave after a 14-year tenure that included helping steer scandal-prone Facebook to advertising dominance.

Sandberg, 52, has been one of the most influential women in Silicon Valley and her departure comes as the social media juggernaut faces an uncertain future and fierce competition.

Her exit from Facebook parent Meta will be effective in the fall, she wrote on the platform, adding she planned to remain on the firm’s board.

A Harvard-educated executive, Sandberg joined Facebook in 2008 when it was still just a startup, playing a formative role in its development into a multi-billion dollar advertising empire.

“Fourteen years later, it is time for me to write the next chapter of my life,” Sandberg said. “I am not entirely sure what the future will bring — I have learned no one ever is.”

Her job made her not just a recognizable face in tech but also a household name, particularly thanks to her 2013 book “Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead.”

The best seller encouraged women to “lean in” to their careers in order to reach their full potential and overcome workforce obstacles.

It has drawn applause from admirers for articulating a new modern feminist vision and sharp criticism from detractors who say her lofty position has made her out-of-touch with the grueling personal cost of combining career and family.

The social network has recently rebranded itself in a pivot toward a belief the internet is headed towards becoming an immersive virtual world, referred to as the metaverse.

The Silicon Valley colossus has seen its image tainted by accusations it has put profit over user privacy and even the good of society.

“Sandberg leaves Meta, and the social media environment that Facebook helped create, in a far worse place than she found it,” said Media Matters for America president Angelo Carusone.

“Hers is a legacy of enabling trolling, harassment, and abuse.”

Meanwhile, the likes of TikTok, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter and even Apple now vie with Meta for people’s online attention as the Facebook platform is increasingly seen as a place for older people.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that the role Sandberg held at the company will be re-shaped, with Javier Olivan becoming Meta’s chief operating officer.

The next COO will be more traditional, different from the close second-in-command status Sandberg holds, Zuckerberg said.

“She has taught me so much and she has been there for many of the important moments in my life, both personally and professionally,” Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post.

“I’m going to miss running this company with Sheryl.”

Meta shares fell more than two percent on word that Sandberg was leaving, another blow to a stock value that has plummeted on worries that the company’s regular growth was coming to an end.

– Guiding hand –

Facebook was about four years old when Sandberg came on board as a mature, guiding hand at a tech firm with a motto “move fast and break things.”

“I was only 23 years old and I barely knew anything about running a company,” Zuckerberg said.

“Sheryl architected our ads business, hired great people, forged our management culture, and taught me how to run a company.”

Zuckerberg’s farewell to Sandberg gave Creative Strategies analyst Carolina Milanesi a sense that he believes he has outgrown her.

“It feels like that relationship is no longer needed or working,” Milanesi told AFP.

Sandberg, long seen as the “adult” at the youthfully managed firm, has found herself the center of controversy over her role in pushing back at criticism of the social media giant.

Sandberg drew fire in particular over an embarrassing effort to probe George Soros, the billionaire investor, after he assailed the online network as a “menace to society.”

Facebook has acknowledged that Sandberg asked her staff to conduct research on the Hungarian-born billionaire following his remarks, out of concern that he held a “short” position that would profit from a decline in shares.

Among the tech whiz kids, Sandberg offered a steadier hand as a result of her background working for former US Treasury secretary Larry Summers and the philanthropic arm of Google.

Sandberg in 2015 was devastated by the sudden death of her husband, US tech executive David Goldberg, at an upscale resort in Mexico.

Two years ago she announced her engagement to marketing executive Tom Bernthal.

The Texas town of Uvalde on Wednesday laid to rest one of the two teachers gunned down in last week’s elementary school massacre, along with her husband who died days later, leaving their four children orphaned.

Irma Linda Garcia, 48, was killed when a teenaged gunman went on a rampage at Robb Elementary in an attack that left 19 young children dead and convulsed the United States with shock and grief.

Compounding the tragedy, Garcia’s 50-year-old husband, Joe, died two days later. They had been married for more than 24 years.

“They began their relationship in high school and it flourished into a love that was beautiful and kind,” obituaries for the pair said. They are survived by two sons and two daughters, the youngest just 12 years old.

Pallbearers carried the Garcias’ flower-topped caskets into Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Uvalde for Wednesday’s funeral mass, attended by Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. The couple was buried later in the day.

“We must unite as a country against this senseless cycle of violence, act immediately to protect our children, and make sure that every child and every educator feels safe in our schools,” Cardona said in a statement.

The superintendent of the Uvalde school district announced that students and staff would not return to Robb Elementary.

“We are working through plans on how to serve students on other campuses,” Hal Harrell said in a statement.

A GoFundMe set up for the Garcias said Joe died of a “medical emergency” on May 26, two days after the shooting. It sought to raise $10,000, but more than $2.78 million has been donated so far.

“I truly believe Joe died of a broken heart and losing the love of his life,” the page said. 

John Martinez, who identified himself as Joe’s nephew, tweeted that the father of four had “passed away due to grief.”

– Criticism of police response –

With the community plunged into mourning — the first funerals for the children killed were held Tuesday — anger has also seethed over the police response as the tragedy unfolded.

Officers have come under intense criticism over why they waited well over an hour to neutralize the gunman, which Texas officials have admitted was the wrong decision.

Five victims still remained in San Antonio hospitals as of Wednesday — three adults and two children, including a 10-year-old girl in critical condition, Texas media reported.

The Uvalde massacre, the latest in an epidemic of gun violence in the United States, has rekindled desperate calls for gun reform. It came less than two weeks after 10 people died in an attack at a Buffalo, New York grocery store by a young gunman targeting African Americans.

Gun regulation faces deep resistance in the United States, from most Republicans and some rural-state Democrats.

But President Joe Biden — who visited Uvalde over the weekend — vowed Monday to “continue to push” for reform, saying: “I think things have gotten so bad that everybody is getting more rational about it.”

Some key federal lawmakers have also voiced cautious optimism and a bipartisan group of senators worked through the weekend to pursue possible areas of compromise. 

They reportedly were focusing on laws to raise the age for gun purchases or to allow police to remove guns from people considered a threat to themselves or others — but not on an outright ban on high-powered rifles like the weapons used in both Uvalde and Buffalo.

A jubilant Johnny Depp said Wednesday that a US jury “gave me my life back” by overwhelmingly taking his side in a bitter defamation battle with his ex-wife Amber Heard over mutual allegations of domestic abuse.

The jury, after a six-week trial, found that Depp and Heard had defamed each other, but weighed in far more strongly with the “Pirates of the Caribbean” star.

The 58-year-old Depp, who lost a libel case against The Sun tabloid in London in 2020 for calling him a “wife-beater,” celebrated the split verdict in the case as a victory while Heard said she was “heart-broken.”

The five-man, two-woman jury, after deliberating over three days, unanimously found Heard liable for all three counts of defamation against Depp and awarded him $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages.

Virginia law caps punitive damages at $350,000 meaning the total award is $10.35 million.

The 36-year-old Heard prevailed on just one of the three counterclaims she made against Depp and the jury awarded her compensatory damages — but a much lower amount of $2 million.

A somber Heard, her eyes downcast, listened impassively as the verdict was read out in Fairfax County Circuit Court near the US capital.

“The disappointment I feel today is beyond words,” she said in a statement. “I’m heartbroken that the mountain of evidence still was not enough to stand up to the disproportionate power, influence, and sway of my ex-husband.

“I’m even more disappointed with what this verdict means for other women,” she said. “It is a setback. It sets back the clock to a time when a woman who spoke up and spoke out could be publicly shamed and humiliated.

“It sets back the idea that violence against women is to be taken seriously.”

– Fans outside court –

Depp, who has been in England for the past few days, was not in court for the verdict in the high-profile trial that hinged on lurid claims and counterclaims of domestic abuse between the Hollywood celebrities.

But he welcomed the verdict in a statement posted on Instagram which quickly received millions of “likes.”

“Six years ago, my life, the life of my children, the lives of those closest to me, and also, the lives of the people, who for many, many years have supported and believed in me were forever changed,” Depp said.

“The jury gave me my life back,” he said. “From the very beginning, the goal of bringing this case was to reveal the truth, regardless of the outcome.

“The best is yet to come and a new chapter has finally begun.”

A few dozen onlookers and Depp supporters waited outside the courthouse in sweltering heat for the verdict, including a man sporting a Captain Jack Sparrow pirate hat.

A Depp fan held a sign reading: “No matter what happens today, Johnny, you are a winner!!! And the whole world knows the TRUTH!!!”

Depp filed suit against Heard over an article she wrote for The Washington Post in December 2018 in which she described herself as a “public figure representing domestic abuse.”

The Texas-born Heard, who had a starring role in “Aquaman,” did not name Depp in the piece, but he sued her for implying he was a domestic abuser and sought $50 million in damages.

Heard countersued for $100 million, saying she was defamed by statements made by Depp’s lawyer, Adam Waldman, who told the Daily Mail her abuse claims were a “hoax.”

Both needed to prove the statements were defamatory and, to win compensatory or punitive damages, the jury needed to find they were made with actual malice — with knowledge that they were false or with “reckless disregard” for the truth.

– Volatile relationship –

Dozens of witnesses testified during the trial, including bodyguards, Hollywood executives, agents, entertainment industry experts, doctors, friends and relatives.

Depp and Heard each spent days on the witness stand during the televised trial, which was attended by hundreds of fans of the “Pirates” star and accompanied by a #JusticeForJohnnyDepp campaign on social media.

Video and audio recordings of heated, profanity-laced arguments between the couple were played for the jury, which was also shown photographs of injuries allegedly suffered by Heard during their volatile relationship.

Hours of testimony were devoted to a grisly finger injury that Depp suffered while filming an installment of “Pirates” in Australia in March 2015.

Depp, a three-time Oscar nominee, claimed the tip of a finger was severed when Heard threw a vodka bottle at him. Heard said she did not know how the injury occurred.

Both agreed that Depp went on to scrawl messages on walls, lampshades and mirrors using the bloody digit.

Heard said Depp would become a physically and sexually abusive “monster” during alcohol- and drug-fueled binges and resisted her repeated efforts to curb his drinking and drug use.

Depp testified that it was Heard who was frequently violent and said it had been “brutal” to listen to “outlandish” accusations of domestic abuse.

Heard, who was married to Depp from 2015 to 2017, obtained a restraining order against him in May 2016, citing domestic violence.

Both sides claimed that the abuse accusations and surrounding publicity had damaged their Hollywood careers.

US President Joe Biden defended his handling of a spiraling baby formula supply crisis Wednesday, insisting at a meeting with infant food executives that the White House is doing all it can.

A product recall and shutdown of a major plant by industry leader Abbott in February triggered a dramatic and ongoing reduction in availability of formula for parents across the country.

Increasingly, the issue is also turning into a political maelstrom for Biden, with critics questioning his command of the crisis.

Biden told reporters Wednesday that he was only informed about the looming problem in early April and that he’d pulled all the levers of government to resolve shortages ever since.

“I don’t think anyone anticipated the impact of the shutdown of one facility,” Biden said at a meeting with the executives from five companies helping to take up the slack caused by Abbott’s problems.

“Once we learned the extent of it and how broad it was, it kicked everything into gear,” Biden said.

However, the executives at the meeting contradicted this, saying they’d been able to tell immediately in February that a crisis was imminent.

“We knew from the very beginning,” said one, Robert Cleveland, a senior vice president at Reckitt.

Pressed later by reporters about the White House response and Biden’s command of the situation, Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre insisted that staff had been taking action from “day one,” even if Biden himself had not been involved initially.

Top executives from Reckitt, ByHeart, Bubs Australia, Gerber and Perrigo joined by video conference at the meeting featuring Biden, Health Secretary Xavier Becerra and Surgeon General Vivek Murthy. The notable absence was anyone from Abbott.

– ‘Frustrated’ –

The dramatic absence of baby formula on supermarket shelves is compounding a growing sense of unease for ordinary Americans as they navigate an uncertain economic post-Covid pandemic path.

Unlike other shortages and supply bottlenecks, this one has less to do with inflation or the uneven return to economic health among US trade partners worldwide that has seen snags for Americans trying to get everything from foreign-made furniture to cars.

In this case, with Abbott controling about 40 percent of the US baby formula market, the order by health regulators to shut down its factory in Michigan for safety reasons was enough to single handedly spark the crisis.

As the crisis veers from a stress on families trying to feed their babies to a question of Biden’s political competence, the administration is scrambling to show that it has answers.

In addition to asking rival domestic manufacturers to step up production, the White House is running what it dubs Operation Fly Formula, using military transport for speedy shipping from manufacturers abroad.

Earlier Wednesday, the Biden administration announced that two more flights would leave in just over a week from Melbourne, Australia, to Pennsylvania and California, delivering the equivalent of 4.6 million eight ounce (237 milliliter) bottles of Bubs Australia infant formula.

With US regulators cutting red tape to ease imports, Bubs Australia is planning to send a total of 27.5 million bottles.

Addressing the CEOs, Biden said, “There’s nothing more stressful than the feeling you can’t get what your child needs.”

“That’s why I’ve directed my administration to use every tool available to increase the supply,” he added.

Ultimately, however, the United States needs to reform its market to broaden the supply chain, Biden said. “We need more entrants into the marketplace.”

As the political temperature around the issue rises, Jean-Pierre stressed that Biden shares the worry of ordinary people.

“The president himself is frustrated by the situation we have and he is frustrated on behalf of American families,” she said. “He gets what families are going through.”

Russian forces edged closer Wednesday to taking the key eastern Ukraine city of Severodonetsk but Kyiv’s hopes of holding off their invaders were boosted by a US pledge of more advanced rocket systems to help their defence.

The Russians had taken control of 70 percent of the key industrial hub, with Ukrainian forces withdrawing to prepared positions, Lugansk region governor Sergiy Gaiday said.

“If in two or three days, the Russians take control of Severodonetsk, they will install artillery and mortars and will bombard more intensely Lysychansk,” the Ukrainian-held city across the river, he said on Telegram.

Ukraine successfully stopped Russia from seizing Kyiv after its February 24 invasion but the campaign in the east has had a high cost, with President Volodymyr Zelensky saying that 60 to 100 soldiers were dying each day.

“The situation in the east is very difficult,” Zelensky told US newsgroup Newsmax.

With only Lysychansk remaining a pocket of resistance in the eastern Lugansk region, Severodonetsk has become a target of massive Russian firepower.

Oleksander Motuzianyk, spokesman for Ukraine’s defence ministry, said there was fighting in the streets in Severodonetsk and the Russians had reached the city centre.

“The Ukrainian armed forces are actively resisting them,” he said.

In a boost for the outgunned Ukrainian military, President Joe Biden confirmed that longer-range weapons were on the way.

The new weapon is the Himars multiple launch rocket system, or MLRS, a mobile unit that can simultaneously launch multiple precision-guided missiles up to 80 kilometres (50 miles) away.

They are the centrepiece of a $700 million package unveiled Wednesday that also includes air-surveillance radar, more Javelin short-range anti-tank rockets, artillery ammunition, helicopters, vehicles and spare parts.

– ‘Fuel to the fire’ –

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov accused Washington of “adding fuel to the fire”, saying that the weapons would not encourage Kyiv to resume peace talks.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Ukraine had promised not to strike into Russia — and dismissed suggestions that Washington was to blame for escalating with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“Simply put, the best way to avoid escalation is for Russia to stop the aggression and the war that it started,” Blinken told reporters.

He promised that the United States would keep assisting Ukraine, saying there were no signs of Russia pulling back.

“As best we can assess right now, we are still looking at many months of conflict,” he said.

While some analysts have suggested the Himars could be a “game-changer”, others caution they should not be expected to suddenly turn the tables, not least because Ukrainian troops need time to learn how to use them effectively.

But they may improve morale after 98 days of war.

“If you know you have a heavy weapon behind you, everyone’s spirits rise,” one Ukrainian fighter on the frontline told AFP before the announcement.

– ‘Negative consequences’ –

Elsewhere, a missile struck transportation infrastructure near the comparatively stable western city of Lviv, injuring two people, regional governor Maksym Kozytsky said.

West of Severodonetsk, in the city of Sloviansk, AFP journalists saw buildings destroyed by a rocket attack in which three people died and six others were hurt.

And on Wednesday, at least one person died and two others were injured in Soledar, between Sloviansk and Severodonetsk, AFP saw.

The European Union has also sent weapons and cash for Ukraine, while levelling unprecedented economic sanctions on Moscow.

Germany said Wednesday it would deliver an air defence system capable of shielding a major city from Russian air raids, although it will take months to get to the frontline.

EU leaders agreed this week to ban most Russian oil imports but played down the prospects of shutting off Russian gas on which many member states are hugely dependent.

Moscow said a “reorientation” was under way to find alternative destinations for its oil, as it moved to “minimise the negative consequences”.

The sanctions are biting — a panel of investors said Wednesday Russia has failed to pay $1.9 million of accrued interest on a sovereign bond.

And Russian energy giant Gazprom said its gas exports to countries outside the former Soviet Union dropped by more than a quarter year-on-year between January and May after losing several European clients.

– Denmark joins EU defence –

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has sparked a rethinking of security for many Europeans, with Finland and Sweden shedding earlier reluctance to join NATO.

Denmark, a founding member of NATO, took a step further Wednesday by voting overwhelmingly to join the European Union’s common defense policy.

“Tonight Denmark has sent a very important signal. To our allies in Europe and NATO, and to Putin,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told cheering supporters.

“We’re showing that when Putin invades a free country and threatens the stability in Europe, we others pull together,” she said.

Russia’s invasion has killed thousands of people and sent millions of Ukrainians fleeing, but also risks triggering a global food crisis. 

Ukraine — one of the world’s main producers — will likely export only half the amount of grain that it did in the previous season, the Ukrainian Grain Association said.  

At the Vatican, Pope Francis pleaded against the use of grain as a “weapon of war”.

And in Glasgow, meanwhile, Ukraine’s national side played its first official match since Russia’s invasion, defeating Scotland 3-1, setting up a World Cup play-off decider against Wales.

Reflecting the views of many, army serviceman Andriy Veres, 44, said he had been hoping for victory.

“These days it is very important for the country, for all people, for all those who are fans and even for those who are not,” he told AFP in Kyiv.  

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