On the same day that a 24-year-old Kuwaiti-American named Mohammod Youssuf Abdulazeez apparently killed four Marines in Chattanooga, Tennessee, a jury in Colorado convicted James Holmes, now 27, of the murder of 12 people in an Aurora movie theater in July 2012. Such incidents are, sadly, not nearly uncommon enough. According to a USA Today tally, 387 people have been murdered in 78 mass killings since Holmes' attack on defenseless people trying to peacefully watch a Batman movie; 119 of the victims were children.
USA Today defines mass killings as those with at least four victims, not counting the attacker. One such attack has taken place about every two weeks in the U.S. since the newspaper began keeping track in 2006. The most recent number, 387, includes Thursday's Chattanooga killings — plus 14 other massing killings this year — and 63 or the 78 tallied mass killings involved guns, usually handguns. Read more about the grim numbers at USA Today. Peter Weber
Venezuela has once again been plunged into darkness, with a massive blackout leaving most of the country without electricity.
It is believed 19 of 24 states are affected, with the blackout hitting Caracas during rush hour Monday night, shutting down the subway system and causing heavy traffic jams. Government authorities claim the opposition conducted an "electromagnetic attack" against dams in southern Venezuela; during a huge blackout in March, President Nicolás Maduro blamed the U.S., accusing the country of sponsoring an attack on Guri Dam, which provides nearly 80 percent of Venezuela's electricity.
Venezuela is experiencing food and medicine shortages and extreme inflation, and opposition leader Juan Guaidó has called for protests across the country on Tuesday. Guaidó and other opponents say blackouts are proof Maduro has not invested in the country's infrastructure, and its electrical grid is in serious jeopardy. Catherine Garcia
South Korean fighter jets fired warning shots on Tuesday morning when a Russian military aircraft twice violated the country's airspace, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
The Russian aircraft flew over an island off South Korea's eastern coast at 9:09 a.m. and 9:33 a.m. local time, each time for a few minutes, CNN reports. The Ministry of Defense said this was the first time Russia has ever violated South Korean airspace, and the shots were fired using a 20mm weapon. This all took place over Dokdo, islands that South Korea controls but have been claimed by Japan.
Earlier in the morning, two Chinese military aircraft entered South Korea's Air Defense Identification Zone, and were later joined by two Russian planes. It remains unclear if the jets purposely entered the airspace. Catherine Garcia
The skills he learned as a firefighter emergency medical technician in the U.S. Air Force often come in handy as James Golia volunteers with the Sea Lions for Service Members program.
Golia served in the Air Force for 20 years, and lost track of how many times he was deployed to places like Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia. Now retired, Golia was diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder, and a military friend recommended he volunteer with the Pacific Marine Mammal Center's Sea Lions for Service Members program. The facility is in Laguna Beach, California, and rescues injured marine mammals, who are then rehabilitated and released back into the ocean.
Volunteers do everything from feed the sea lions to clean out their pens. Golia originally planned on only helping out one day, but immediately fell in love with the work, and now volunteers once a week. The program's organizers say the veterans are able to empathize with the injured animals, and it encourages them, showing what can be done via rehabilitation. Golia told NBC Los Angeles he considers the time he spends at the center his therapy, and it has made him a different person. "Sometimes in life, a person should feel compelled to give back, and I'm doing just that," he said. Catherine Garcia