U.S. and world news for May 3

Texas gunman captured: Francisco Oropesa, the suspect in the assault rifle killings of five people in Cleveland, Texas, has been arrested. A manhunt found him hiding under laundry in a closet of a house about 20 miles from the shooting scene. Officials said his wife also was arrested, but details about her arrest were not immediately disclosed.

Russians claim attack: The Russian government today accused Ukraine of attacking the Kremlin with drones in an attempt to assassinate Russian President Vladimir Putin. Putin was reported to be unharmed. The Ukrainians deny doing it and suggest it was the Russians who flew two drones toward the Kremlin, staging a fake attack in order to drive a wedge between Ukraine and the U.S. The U.S. has warned Ukraine not to use U.S. military equipment for attacks inside of Russia.

Fed expected to raise rates: The Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates by another quarter of a point this afternoon as it continues its efforts to combat inflation. A side effect of the Fed’s interest rate hikes has been added pressure on the banking system as banking assets such as older bonds and mortgages that have low interest rates fall in value compared with newer assets paying higher interest.

Journalist sentenced: A court in the Russian ally Belarus has sentenced a journalist to eight years in jail for allegedly working to overthrow the Belarus government. The journalist, Raman Pratasevich and his girlfriend were removed from a Ryanair airplane that was forced to land in the Belarus capital city of Minsk in May 2021. Belarus authorities had lied and said there was a bomb threat against the airplane in order to get it to land so they could make the arrests.

Steakhouse chain being bought: Darden Restaurants, based in Orlando, which owns the Olive Garden chain of restaurants along with other brands, announced today that it is buying the Ruth’s Chris chain of steakhouses in a $715 million all-cash transaction. Darden said that Ruth’s Chris has 154 locations, both company-owned and franchised, and had sales of more than $860 million in 2022.

Carlson’s writings: The New York Times this morning published a previously redacted message sent by fired Fox News host Tucker Carlson to a producer in which Carlson said that while watching a video from the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol he found himself rooting for the mob to kill a young man they were attacking. “I really wanted them to hurt the kid. I could taste it,” Carlson wrote. It is believed there are other writings by Carlson that were used in the Dominion case against Fox that remain redacted from public view and also have hateful and racist content that Fox News management found especially disturbing.

Cover photo by Karl Baron / Flickr Creative Commons