In our news wrap Saturday, fighting continued in eastern Ukraine despite a Russia-ordered cease fire for Orthodox Christmas, a Virginia teacher’s condition is improving after a 6-year-old student shot her at school, a federal appeals court struck down a ban on bump stocks for semi-automatic guns, and the new XBB.1.5 COVID variant is on the rise across the country after the holiday season.
News Wrap: Russia shells Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine during cease-fire
World
Jan 07, 2023 05:40 PM EDT
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John Yang:
There is other news today, fighting went on in eastern Ukraine despite Russia declaring a ceasefire in observance of Eastern Orthodox Christmas. Shelling reduced entire city blocks in the town of Bakhmut to rubble. Ukraine called Russian President Vladimir Putin's 36 hours ceasefire, a ploy. Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy praised the latest multibillion dollar package of U.S. military assistance.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukrainian President (through translator):
This is exactly what is needed, new guns and rounds, including high precision ones, new rockets, new drones. It is timely and strong.
John Yang:
The latest aid package is over $3 billion, the largest yet. In Newport News, Virginia, the mayor says that a first-grade teacher's condition is improving after a six-year-old student shot and critically injured her yesterday in the classroom. Police say the boy was part of an altercation and that the shooting was intentional. No one else was injured. A school shooting involving a child this young is rare. Virginia law limits the ways a child can be punished for a crime like this.
Federal appeals court in New Orleans has struck down a ban on so-called bump stocks, the device that helps fire multiple rounds from semiautomatic guns. The Trump administration banned bump stocks after the 2017 massacre at a Las Vegas music concert, the deadliest mass shooting in U. S. history. The court ruling has no immediate effect. It sends the case back to a lower court for further consideration.
And a new COVID strain of Omicron is on the rise across the nation. Partly, health officials say, because of holiday gatherings. XBB.1.5 accounts for almost 28% of the cases nationwide. It's more transmissible than other strains, but it's not clear yet whether it causes worse outcomes.
Still to come on "PBS News Weekend," an update on humanitarian relief efforts in Pakistan from last year's floods and no alcohol trend known as dry January.
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