Month: June 2021

Three people are dead, including a child, after a shooting at a South Florida grocery store on Thursday. The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office (“PBSO”) said the shooting took place inside a Publix supermarket in Royal Palm Beach, just west of West Palm Beach.

Police and emergency officials responded to the shopping center just before noon. Police kept most customers and employees inside the store for multiple hours for interviews before allowing some to leave around 2:30 p.m.  The PBSO said in a tweet, “Upon arrival, deputies located three individuals deceased from gunshot wounds, one adult male, one adult female and one child.  The shooter is one of the deceased. This was NOT an active shooter situation.”  

Palm Beach County Commissioner Melissa McKinlay said the child was a toddler: “This one is hard,” she said. “You don’t like to hear about these things in your district. You don’t like to hear about them anywhere in the country.” Publix spokeswoman Maria Brous issued a statement saying the company couldn’t confirm any details from the incident since it involved an active police investigation: “Our thoughts are with those who are impacted by this tragedy,” she said. “We are cooperating with the local law enforcement.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/3-dead-after-shooting-at-publix-in-royal-palm-beach/ar-AAKUAsw

On Thursday, President Joe Biden announced his plan to buy an additional 500 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine to distribute to lower-income countries, increasing the U.S. commitment to fighting the pandemic across the globe. Biden made the announcement in the Cornwall village of St. Ives, the United Kingdom seaside resort village where world leaders are gathering for the G-7 summit.

Said Biden: “That’s a historic step. The largest single purchase and donation COVID-19 vaccines by any single country ever. Importantly, this is the mRNA vaccine, which is proven to be extremely effective against COVID-19 and every known variant of that virus thus far. These half a billion vaccines will start to be shipped in August, as quickly as they roll off the manufacturing line. 200 million of these doses will be delivered this year, 2021. And 300 million more will be delivered in the first half of 2022.”

Biden also stressed getting vaccines distributed around the world was also in American’s best interest to keep variants in check, and improve the global economy following the impacts of the pandemic. Biden had previously criticized other countries, including Russia and China, for seeking to curry favor with their vaccine programs, and argued the new surge of doses from the U.S. were being offered with “no strings attached.”  The President said, “Let me be clear, just as with the 80 million doses we previously announced, the United States is providing these half-million doses with no strings attached. Let me say it again, with no strings attached. Our vaccine donations don’t include pressure for favors or potential concessions. We’re doing this to save lives, to end this pandemic, that’s it. Period.”

http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/cnn_latest/~3/ED_YHrkZs9o/index.html