Putin blasts group's short-lived rebellion

Laura L. Davis, USA TODAY
Updated ·4 min read
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Russian President Vladimir Putin lashed out against the Wagner Group's short-lived rebellion. And it was a deadly weekend at a Florida beach.

👋 Hey! Laura Davis here. Let’s get you caught up on Monday’s news.

But first: Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the ugliest of them all? 🤔 He won't be winning any "best in show" awards, but his distinct features captured the attention of judges at the World's Ugliest Dog contest. Meet Scooter. 

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Putin vows action after Wagner rebellion

Determined and clearly irked, Russian President Vladimir Putin pledged Monday to take decisive action against the perpetrators of the brief weekend uprising led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the mercenary Wagner Group. In a five-minute televised address, he extolled Russian patriotism as the reason for the quick end to the rebellion and said it would have been suppressed had it continued. Putin also said many of the troops who participated in the failed coup were loyal Russians who were misled, and apparently placed most of the blame on Prigozhin, his former ally who accepted a deal to flee to Belarus. Earlier Monday, Prigozhin issued his first statement since the aborted weekend march on Moscow and said the goal was protest, not regime change.

Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting with the heads of Russian law enforcement agencies at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, on Monday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting with the heads of Russian law enforcement agencies at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, on Monday.

Millions under threat of severe storms and heat

A day after powerful storms swept through a large part of the country, millions in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic were under threat of severe weather on Monday.

  • Three killed Sunday: At least two tornadoes touched down in Indiana on Sunday night, killing one person. In Arkansas, two people were killed when a tree plunged into a house.

  • What's happening Monday: More than 400,000 people were without power after storms battered Tennessee, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky and Michigan. A front moving eastward from the Midwest was expected to bring heavy rain and thunderstorms throughout the eastern U.S. on Monday, and there was an "enhanced" risk of severe weather in the mid-Atlantic, the Storm Prediction Center said. Here's the latest.

  • Scorching heat dome expands: Millions are expected to sweat as a heat dome stretches beyond Texas this week.

What everyone's talking about

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Suspect in Colorado Springs nightclub shooting pleads guilty

The suspect accused of killing five people and injuring 17 at an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs in November pleaded guilty Monday to multiple murder charges and other crimes. The 23-year-old pleaded guilty to five counts of first-degree murder and 46 counts of attempted first-degree murder and no contest two counts of bias-motivated crimes. According to the plea deal, the shooter will serve five consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole on the murder charges and 46 consecutive 48-year sentences on the attempted-murder charges. The plea deal spares survivors and victims' family members a potentially painful trial.

Panama City Beach tops US in beach deaths

Three more tourists died while swimming in the Gulf of Mexico over the weekend under dangerous conditions. The swimmers died Saturday off Panama City Beach, Florida, according to a release, and seven people have now died along the coast of Bay County in nine days – the highest number of beach fatalities for any single locale in the U.S. for 2023, according to a National Weather Service database. All of the victims Saturday were tourists who died after struggling with rip currents. In every instance but one, double red flags were posted, meaning the Gulf was closed to swimmers.

Dangerous rip currents around Panama City Beach, Florida, led to the deaths of three tourists over the weekend.
Dangerous rip currents around Panama City Beach, Florida, led to the deaths of three tourists over the weekend.

A break from the news

Laura L. Davis is an Audience Editor at USA TODAY. Send her an email at laura@usatoday.com or follow along with her adventures – and misadventures – on Twitter. Support quality journalism like this? Subscribe to USA TODAY here.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Putin blasts coup attempt, severe weather, Club Q shooting: Monday's news