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Indianapolis police were seeking a motive for the shooting that killed at least eight people at a FedEx facility.
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Amazon is hoping its new Lord of the Rings show will be a precious commodity in the streaming wars — but it won't come cheap. Amazon Studios' The Lord of the Rings TV series is set to have an insanely large budget of about $465 million just for its first season, according to The Hollywood Reporter. New Zealand Minister for Economic Development and Tourism Stuart Nash revealed that price tag to Morning Report, and the Reporter confirmed it. "This will be the largest television series ever made," Nash said. To put that in perspective, the Reporter notes that Game of Thrones cost about $100 million a season. The $465 million budget would also make the Lord of the Rings show's first season almost $90 million more expensive than the most expensive movie ever made, not adjusted for inflation. The series will be filming in New Zealand, and "Amazon's spending will trigger a tax rebate" of $114 million, the Reporter says. The monumental price tag was quite surprising especially considering it had previously been reported that Amazon was expected to spend $500 million on the show across multiple seasons, rather than close to that amount just on season one. This is one of a number of upcoming shows clearly hoping to be the next Game of Thrones, but we'll have to see whether it can truly become the one streaming series to rule them all. More stories from theweek.com5 colossally funny cartoons about Biden's infrastructure planHow a music teacher falsely accused of pedophilia sparked the Matt Gaetz investigationRomney, Cheney, and other Trump critics spend 'tens of thousands' on security after Capitol riot
Stakes are rising in Massachusetts’ legal battle against Robinhood Financial, and regulators are asking for the popular trading app's brokerage registration to be revoked, which would effectively bar it from the state. Robinhood, meanwhile, calls the complaint brought by Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin's office elitist and based on a rule that should not apply in its case. It’s asking to move the issue to a state court, rather than continue to work through an administrative process.
Suspect identified on Friday as 19-year-old Indiana man‘Significant’ number of FedEx employees are Sikh, police say Police stand near a sign at the FedEx facility where multiple people were shot and killed the previous night in Indianapolis. Photograph: Michael Conroy/AP The FBI and authorities were investigating possible motives on Friday after a gunman killed eight people and injured several more at a FedEx warehouse in Indianapolis, in the latest of a string of mass shootings to rock the US. Authorities identified the gunman as 19-year-old Brandon Scott Hole of Indiana, according to multiple media reports. Police said they could not yet explain why he opened fire with a rifle late Thursday night at a FedEx processing center near the Indianapolis airport. Randal Taylor, the police chief, said a “significant” number of employees at the FedEx facility are members of the Sikh community. Taylor spoke from a hotel where family members were awaiting word on their loved ones. “We are deeply saddened to learn that Sikh community members are among those injured and killed by the gunman in Indianapolis last night,” Satjeet Kaur, executive director of the Sikh Coalition, said in the statement. “Our hearts and prayers are with their families, and we are in touch with community leaders, government and law enforcement officials to learn more. While we don’t yet know the motive or identity of the shooter, we expect that authorities will continue to conduct a full investigation – including the possibility of bias as a factor.” The gunman killed himself almost immediately after the shooting and before officers arrived, police said. Special agent Paul Keenan of the FBI in Indianapolis said earlier on Friday that “it would be premature to speculate” on the suspect’s motivation for the shooting. An Indianapolis home connected with the shooting was being searched on Friday morning, police said. Authorities were reportedly warned about the suspect’s potential for violence in the past, according to CNN. Police did not confirm whether the suspect was known to federal and local authorities prior to the attack. “This suspect came to the facility, and when he came there he got out of his car and pretty quickly started some random shooting outside of the facility,” said Craig McCartt, the deputy chief of criminal investigations for Indianapolis metropolitan police.“There was no confrontation, there was no disturbance, there was no argument, he just appeared to randomly start shooting … that started in the parking lot and then into the facility,” said McCartt. He later added the suspect had a “rifle”. McCartt said the fatalities and injuries occurred in the space of just a few minutes. Five people were hospitalized, according to police. Another two people were treated and released at the scene. A witness said that he was working inside the building when he heard several gunshots in rapid succession. “I see a man come out with a rifle in his hand and he starts firing and he starts yelling stuff that I could not understand,” Levi Miller told WTHR-TV. “What I ended up doing was ducking down to make sure he did not see me because I thought he would see me and he would shoot me.” Mindy Carson was one of the family members gathered at a nearby hotel to await word on loved ones. “When you see notifications on your phone, but you’re not getting a text back from your kid and you’re not getting information and you still don’t know where they are what are you supposed to do?” said Carson, holding back tears. Her daughter, Jessica, works in the facility and she had not heard from her. The incident is the third mass shooting in Indianapolis this year, and is the latest in a string of such attacks across the US in recent months. After a significant drop in mass shootings during a pandemic-hit 2020, the Gun Violence Archive said 147 mass shootings have occurred so far in 2021. Their definition of mass shooting is a minimum of four gunshot victims. “This morning, for the third time, since January our community woke up to news of a senseless crime that will not soon leave our memory,” the Indianapolis police chief, Randal Taylor, lamented. Randal Taylor, the police chief. Photograph: Michael Conroy/AP Five people including a pregnant woman were shot and killed in the city in January, and a man was accused of killing three adults and a child before abducting his daughter during an argument at a home in March. Eight people were fatally shot at massage businesses across metro Atlanta, and 10 died in gunfire at a supermarket in Boulder, Colorado, last month. The Indianapolis mayor, Joe Hogsett, called the shooting part of a “cycle of violence” attributable to “readily accessible guns” in America. Before the mass shooting, Hogsett was one of more than 150 mayors who signed a letter calling on the US Senate to close firearms background check loopholes and strengthen gun control laws.“Beyond the need for comfort for the grieving, we must guard against resignation or even despair – the assumption that this is simply how it must be and that we might as well get used to it,” said Hogsett. “We need the courage that compels courageous acts that push past weariness.” Joe Biden last week announced a half-dozen executive actions to combat what he called an “epidemic and an international embarrassment” of gun violence in America, but he said much more is needed. “Last night and into the morning in Indianapolis, yet again families had to wait to hear word about the fate of their loved ones. What a cruel wait and fate that has become too normal and happens every day somewhere in our nation,” the president said in a statement on Friday.“Gun violence is an epidemic in America. But we should not accept it. We must act.” FedEx said: “We are aware of the tragic shooting at our FedEx Ground facility near the Indianapolis airport. Safety is our top priority, and our thoughts are with all those who are affected. We are working to gather more information and are cooperating with investigating authorities.”
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University founded by Falwell’s father accuses him of concealing details of scandal involving wife Becki and pool boy from Miami Jerry Falwell Jr resigned in the wake of an extortion scandal last year. Photograph: Jonathan Drake/Reuters The prominent evangelist Jerry Falwell Jr is facing a $10m lawsuit from the Christian university founded by his father, and which he served as president until resigning in the wake of a sordid extortion scandal last year. Liberty University, in Lynchburg, Virginia, claims Falwell hid “potentially damaging” details of the scandal as he negotiated a lucrative new contract for himself with the university’s trustees. Falwell, whose father, the Rev Jerry Falwell Sr, founded the conservative college in 1971, resigned his position last August after details emerged of the alleged extortion by a pool boy from Miami, who claimed to have had a seven-year affair with Falwell and his wife Becki. Among the breach-of-contract lawsuit’s other claims, the newspaper said, are that Falwell, 58, a fervent supporter of the former president Donald Trump, failed to disclose or address “his personal impairment by alcohol”. The legal action against Falwell, who dropped his own defamation lawsuit against Liberty in December, prolongs the already messy aftermath of his departure from the 79,000-student university. On Wednesday, Scott Lamb, Liberty’s senior vice-president of communications, announced that Trey Falwell, Falwell Jr’s son, had left his job as the university’s vice-president, without providing detail. Politico reported the move as further evidence the university was “seeking aggressively to distance itself from its former president”. In reply to an email from the Guardian seeking comment on Friday, Lamb said: “The University’s only word on the subject is the lawsuit itself.” Falwell could not be reached for comment. Liberty’s trustees gathered in Lynchburg this week to discuss a permanent replacement as president – Jerry Prevo, 76, who founded the university with Falwell Sr. It is unclear to what extent the lawsuit was discussed. The lawsuit alleges that Falwell, in hiding the details of the alleged extortion, breached his fiduciary duties to the university as he negotiated for a higher salary. It claims he also kept university property he was required to return. Falwell was the university’s president from 2007 until his resignation. In August 2020, Giancarlo Granda, who met Falwell and his wife when he worked at a Miami hotel, revealed what he said was a lengthy sexual affair with the couple. Falwell has claimed the affair was only with his wife. Falwell “led a scheme to cover up the illicit conduct”, the lawsuit alleges, which it says damaged the university and its reputation and breached the school’s code of conduct.