Wednesday morning news - May 25, 2022

For WORLD Radio, I'm Kent Covington. 

Texas governor: 15 killed in school shooting; gunman dead » An 18-year-old gunman opened fire Tuesday at a Texas elementary school, killing 14 children, one teacher and injuring others.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said of the gunman …

ABBOTT: He himself is deceased, and it is believed that responding officers killed him.

It was the deadliest shooting at a U.S. grade school since the shocking attack at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, almost a decade ago.

Abbot said the gunman entered Robb Elementary School in Uvalde with a handgun and possibly a rifle. The shooter was identified as Salvador Ramos. Police say he acted alone.

Uvalde is a town of about 16,000 people 85 miles west of San Antonio.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton told reporters…

PAXTON: We have a crime victims assistance group that we’re sending down to Uvalde. That’s the first step for us is to take care of these families, take care of their medical needs, take care of their psychological needs, just try to help them. Second, we need to continue to try to focus on preventing this.

It was the deadliest school shooting in Texas history. It occurred four years after a gunman fatally shot 10 people at Santa Fe High School in the Houston area.

Ukraine: 200 bodies found in basement in Mariupol's ruins » In Ukraine, workers digging through the rubble of an apartment building in Mariupol made a gruesome discovery. WORLD’s Anna Johansen Brown has more.

ANNA JOHANSEN BROWN, REPORTER: Ukrainian authorities said more horrors come to light in the ruined city when they discovered about 200 bodies in the basement of a bombed out building.

The number of victims makes it one of the deadliest known attacks of the war.

Moscow’s forces relentlessly pounded Mariupol during a nearly three-month siege that ended last week with the surrender of some 2,500 Ukrainian fighters.

Russian troops already held the rest of the city, where an estimated 100,000 civilians remain—many of them trapped with little food, water, or power.

Ukraine says Russia is trying to cover up its war crimes in the city by bringing in mobile cremation equipment and burying the dead in mass graves.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Anna Johansen Brown.

Stoltenberg: Freedom is more important than trade » The head of NATO, Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told global leaders that when it comes to business with authoritarian countries...

STOLTENBERG: Freedom is more important than free trade. The protection of our values is more important than profit.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland on Tuesday, he said it’s critically important to maintain strong sanctions against Russia. He also expressed regret over Europe’s dependence on Russian energy.

But he said valuing freedom over profit isn’t just about Moscow.

STOLTENBERG: This is about Russia, but also about China, another authoritarian regime that does not share our values and that undermines the rules-based international order.

China is a global leader in the 5G data race, though former President Trump made it a top goal of the United States to catch up to Beijing.

Stoltenberg said he’s in no way urging NATO countries to sever economic ties with China, but rather to ensure we don’t sacrifice our values or security in the name of trade.

U.S. births rose last year but still less than before pandemic » It wasn’t quite a baby boom, but the U.S. birth rate did rise last year for the first time in seven years. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin has more.

KRISTEN FLAVIN, REPORTER: The U.S. government reports that about 3.7 million babies were born last year, a 1 percent increase from 2020.

Despite the increase, still about 86,000 fewer babies were born than in 2019 before COVID-19 disrupted life across the globe.

In 2020, the first year of the pandemic, the United States saw the biggest one-year drop in births in nearly 50 years.

And even before that, U.S. births had declined for more than a decade before the virus struck.

Officials think last year's uptick reflects births from pregnancies put off during the uncertain early days of the pandemic. Deliveries were way down in January 2021, but picked up as the year went on.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

I’m Kent Covington. For more news, features, and analysis, visit us at wng.org. 

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