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Ex-student shoots dead 3 children, 3 adults at Tennessee Christian school

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A heavily armed 28-year-old fatally shot three children and three adult staffers on Monday at a private Christian school the suspect once attended in Tennessee’s capital city before police killed the assailant, Reuters quoted authorities said.

The motive was not immediately known, but the suspect had drawn detailed maps of the school, including entry points for the building, and left behind a “manifesto” and other writings that investigators were examining, Police Chief John Drake told reporters.

The latest in an epidemic of deadly mass gun violence that has come to routinely terrorize even the most cherished of U.S. institutions unfolded on a warm spring morning at The Covenant School, whose students consist mostly of elementary school-age children, read the report.

Drake identified the suspect as Audrey Elizabeth Hale, 28, a resident of the Nashville area, and referred to the assailant by female pronouns. The chief said the suspect identified as transgender but provided no further clarity.

The Tennessean newspaper cited a police spokesperson as saying Hale used he/him pronouns. Hale used male pronouns on a LinkedIn page that listed recent jobs in graphic design and grocery delivery.

Police later released a school video showing the assailant blasting through glass doors with gunfire and roaming the halls, pointing a semi-automatic rifle. Hale wore a black vest over a white T-shirt, camouflage pants and a backwards red baseball cap in a video that showed only the shooter in the frame.

Addressing an early evening news conference, Drake said police were working on a theory about what may have precipitated the shooting and would “put that out as soon as we can.” He said the suspect had no known prior criminal history.

In a subsequent NBC News television interview, Drake said investigators believed the shooting stemmed from “some resentment” the suspect harbored “for having to go to that school” as a younger person.

The police chief did not specify the nature of such presumed resentment, or whether it had anything to do with the suspect’s gender identity or the Christian orientation of the school. Drake said the school was singled out for attack but the individual victims were targeted at random.

The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department began receiving calls at 10:13 a.m. of a shooter at the school, and arriving officers reported hearing gunfire coming from the building’s second floor, police spokesperson Don Aaron told reporters.

Two officers from a five-member team shot the assailant in a lobby area, and the suspect was pronounced dead by 10:27 a.m.

“The police department response was swift,” Aaron said.

Police said the suspect was armed with two assault-type guns and a 9 mm pistol, Reuters reported.

The victims were identified as Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney, all age 9, along with staffers Mike Hill, 61, a school custodian, Cynthia Peak, 61, a substitute teacher, and Katherine Koonce, 60, listed on the Covenant website as “head of school.”

Reacting in Washington to the latest school shooting, President Joe Biden urged the U.S. Congress again to pass tougher gun reform legislation, read the report.

“It’s sick,” Biden said, addressing the issue during an event at the White House and urging Congress again to pass a ban on assault-style weapons. “We have to do more to stop gun violence. It’s ripping our communities apart, ripping the soul of this nation.”

U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican, said on Twitter that her office stands “ready to assist” those affected by the shooting.

But Rosanne Cash, daughter of the late Nashville country music star Johnny Cash and a singer-songwriter in her own right, responded by criticizing Blackburn’s ties to the National Rifle Association (NRA) gun lobby.

“You vote against every common sense gun control bill that comes across your desk, you’ve taken over $1 million from the NRA and you rank 14th in all Congress for NRA contributions. Spare us the hand-wringing,” Cash said on Twitter.

At the state level, Tennessee in 2021 did away with its permit requirement for carrying a concealed handgun and now allows anyone aged 21 and older to carry a firearm, either openly or concealed, without a permit, as long as they are legally allowed to purchase the weapon.

Possessing a handgun is outlawed in Tennessee for anybody who has been convicted of a felony offense involving violence or drugs, Reuters reported.

The Covenant School, founded in 2001, is a ministry of Covenant Presbyterian Church in the Green Hills neighborhood of Nashville with about 200 students, according to the school’s website. It serves preschool through sixth graders and held an active shooter training program in 2022, WTVF-TV reported.

Nashville Mayor John Cooper expressed sympathy for the victims and wrote on social media that his city “joined the dreaded, long list of communities to experience a school shooting.”

There have been 89 school shootings – defined as any incident in which a gun is discharged on school property – in the U.S. in 2023, according to the K-12 School Shooting Database, a website founded by researcher David Riedman. Last year saw 303 such incidents, the highest of any year in the database, which goes back to 1970.

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Trump says Russia, Ukraine agree to immediate ceasefire talks, Kremlin offers no timeframe

Putin thanked Trump for supporting the resumption of direct talks between Moscow and Kyiv after the two sides met in Turkey last week for their first face-to-face negotiations since March 2022.

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Donald Trump said after his call on Monday with President Vladimir Putin that Russia and Ukraine will immediately start negotiations for a ceasefire, but the Kremlin said the process would take time and the U.S. president indicated he was not ready to join Europe with fresh sanctions to pressure Moscow.

In a social media post, Trump said he relayed the plan to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy as well as the leaders of the European Union, France, Italy, Germany and Finland in a group call following his session with the Russian leader.

“Russia and Ukraine will immediately start negotiations toward a Ceasefire and, more importantly, an END to the War,” Trump said, adding later at the White House that he thought “some progress is being made.”

Putin thanked Trump for supporting the resumption of direct talks between Moscow and Kyiv after the two sides met in Turkey last week for their first face-to-face negotiations since March 2022. But after the Monday call he said only that efforts were “generally on the right track”.

“We have agreed with the president of the United States that Russia will propose and is ready to work with the Ukrainian side on a memorandum on a possible future peace accord,” Putin told reporters near the Black Sea resort of Sochi.

While the indications that Ukraine and Russia will continue direct contacts speak of progress after more than three years of the war, the Monday flurry of talks again failed to deliver on expectations for a major breakthrough.

European leaders decided to increase pressure on Russia through sanctions after Trump briefed them on his call with Putin, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said in an X post late on Monday.

Trump did not appear ready to follow that move. Asked why he had not imposed fresh sanctions to push Moscow into a peace deal as he had threatened, Trump told reporters: “Well because I think there’s a chance of getting something done, and if you do that, you can also make it much worse. But there could be a time where that’s going to happen.”

Trump said there were “some big egos involved.” Without progress, “I’m just going to back away,” he said, repeating a warning that he could abandon the process. “This is not my war.”

European leaders and Ukraine have demanded Russia agree to a ceasefire immediately, and Trump has focused on getting Putin to commit to a 30-day truce. Putin has resisted this, insisting that conditions be met first.

Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said Trump and Putin did not discuss a timeline for a ceasefire but did discuss trading nine Russians for nine Americans in a prisoner swap. He said the U.S. leader called prospects for ties between Moscow and Washington “impressive.”

Russian state news agencies cited Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov as saying that Moscow and Kyiv faced “complex contacts” to develop a unified text of a peace and ceasefire memorandum.

“There are no deadlines and there cannot be any. It is clear that everyone wants to do this as quickly as possible, but, of course, the devil is in the details,” the RIA agency quoted him as saying.

Former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt said on X the call with Trump was “undoubtedly a win for Putin.”

The Russian leader “deflected the call for an … immediate ceasefire and instead can continue military operations at the same time as he puts pressure on at the negotiating table,” he said.

After speaking with Trump, Zelenskiy said Kyiv and its partners might seek a high-level meeting among Ukraine, Russia, the United States, European Union countries and Britain as part of a push to end the war.

“Ukraine is ready for direct negotiations with Russia in any format that brings results,” Zelenskiy said on X.

He said that this could be hosted by Turkey, the Vatican or Switzerland. It was not immediately clear if this would be part of the negotiations Trump said would start immediately.

Trump said Pope Leo had expressed interest in hosting the negotiations at the Vatican. The Vatican did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Kremlin’s Peskov said Putin and Trump discussed direct contacts between the Russian leader and Zelenskiy. Moscow also welcomed the Vatican’s proposal, but no decision had been made on a place for “possible future contacts,” he added.

One person familiar with Trump’s call with the Ukrainian and European leaders said participants were “shocked” that Trump did not want to push Putin with sanctions.

In a post on X, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said only that the conversation with Trump was “good” and it was “important that the U.S. stays engaged.”

Ukraine and its supporters have accused Russia of failing to negotiate in good faith, doing the minimum needed to keep Trump from applying new pressure on its economy.

If Trump were to impose new sanctions, it would be a milestone moment given that he has appeared sympathetic towards Russia and torn up the pro-Ukraine policies of his predecessor, Joe Biden.

Prodded by Trump, delegates from the warring countries met last week in Istanbul for the first time since 2022, but the talks failed to broker a truce. Hopes faded after Putin spurned Zelenskiy’s proposal to meet face to face there.

Putin, whose forces control a fifth of Ukraine and are advancing, has stood firm on his conditions for ending the war, including the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from four Ukrainian regions Russia claims.

He said the memorandum Russia and Ukraine would work on about a future peace accord would define “a number of positions, such as, for example, the principles of settlement, the timing of a possible peace agreement.”

“The main thing for us is to eliminate the root causes of this crisis,” Putin said. “We just need to determine the most effective ways to move towards peace.”

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Former US President Biden diagnosed with ‘aggressive’ prostate cancer

Biden, 82, was diagnosed on Friday after experiencing urinary symptoms, and he and his family are reviewing treatment options with doctors, according to the statement.

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Former U.S. President Joe Biden has been diagnosed with an “aggressive form” of prostate cancer that has spread to his bones, his office said in a statement on Sunday.

Biden, 82, was diagnosed on Friday after experiencing urinary symptoms, and he and his family are reviewing treatment options with doctors, according to the statement.

“While this represents a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive which allows for effective management,” his office said.

Cancers that have spread, or metastasized, are considered Stage 4, the most advanced. Most prostate cancers are detected at an earlier stage.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, of the 236,659 cases of prostate cancer diagnosed in 2021, 70% were diagnosed before the cancer had spread beyond the prostate. About 8% of new prostate cancer diagnoses that year involved advanced-stage disease.

Biden’s physical health and mental acuity drew scrutiny during his 2021-2025 presidency. He abruptly ended his bid for reelection last July, weeks after a halting performance during a debate against Republican Donald Trump prompted panic among his fellow Democrats.

President Trump, who has repeatedly berated Biden since taking office in January, expressed sympathy on Sunday for Biden and his wife, Jill, in a post on his social media platform Truth Social.

“Melania and I are saddened to hear about Joe Biden’s recent medical diagnosis,” he wrote, referring to first lady Melania Trump. “We extend our warmest and best wishes to Jill and the family, and we wish Joe a fast and successful recovery.”

Biden’s office said the cancer scored a nine out of 10 on the Gleason score grading system, which is used to help determine the aggressiveness of prostate cancer.

Dr. Herbert Lepor, an urologist at NYU Langone, said a score of nine is “very high risk,” but added that many men can live “five to 10 years and beyond” even with metastatic prostate cancer.

“Over the last decade, there have been many advances in the treatment of advanced prostate cancer,” he said.

Dr. Chris George, the medical director of the cancer program for the Northwestern Health Network, said prostate cancer is no longer curable once it spreads to the bones but that there are treatments that can control it.

Biden was the oldest person to win the U.S. presidency at the time of his election in 2020. Trump, 78, broke that record when he defeated Vice President Kamala Harris last year.

Some prominent Democrats have recently acknowledged that it was an error to advance Biden as the 2024 nominee, given widespread concerns among voters about his age. Long before the debate last summer, Reuters/Ipsos polls showed a majority of Americans, including most Democrats, believed Biden was too old to serve a second term.

“It was a mistake for Democrats to not listen to the voters earlier,” Democratic U.S. Senator Chris Murphy told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” on Sunday morning, before Biden’s diagnosis was announced.

Biden has kept a low profile since leaving office, making only a handful of public appearances, including an April speech in which he defended the Social Security Administration against Trump’s planned cuts.

He has also defended his legacy in interviews and rejected reporting in two new books that he suffered from cognitive decline during his last year in office.

“They are wrong,” he said earlier this month on ABC’s “The View,” referring to the books’ authors.

Biden’s diagnosis triggered an outpouring of supportive statements on Sunday from Democrats and Republicans alike.

“Joe is a fighter — and I know he will face this challenge with the same strength, resilience and optimism that have always defined his life and leadership,” Harris said in a statement.

Biden lost a son, Beau Biden, in 2015 due to brain cancer.

In 2022, Biden revived an Obama-era program known as Cancer Moonshot, seeking to reduce the death rate from cancer by at least 50% over the next 25 years.

 

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Russians and Ukrainians meet in Turkey for first talks in 3 years

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Russian and Ukrainian negotiators met in Istanbul on Friday at their first direct peace talks in more than three years, under pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump to end Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War Two.

Live television showed Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan addressing Russian and Ukrainian negotiators at the lavish Dolmabahce Palace on the Bosphorus. Half of the Ukrainian delegation wore camouflage military fatigues, sitting at a table directly facing their Russian counterparts, who were in suits, Reuters reported.

Fidan said it was critical to achieve a ceasefire as soon as possible. He said he was happy to see the will of both sides to open a new window of opportunity for peace, and it was important that the Istanbul talks form the basis for a meeting between leaders of the two countries.

“There are two paths ahead of us: one road will take us on a process that will lead to peace, while the other will lead to more destruction and death. The sides will decide on their own, with their own will, which path they choose,” Fidan said.

The warring sides had not met face-to-face since March 2022, the month after Russia’s invasion.

Expectations for a major breakthrough, already low, were dented further on Thursday when Trump, winding up a Middle East tour, said there would be no movement without a meeting between himself and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.

The head of Ukraine’s delegation, setting out Kyiv’s priorities, said peace was only possible if Russia agreed to a 30-day ceasefire, the return of abducted Ukrainian children and an exchange of all prisoners of war.

Russia says it wants to end the war by diplomatic means and is ready to discuss a ceasefire. But it has raised a list of questions and concerns, saying Ukraine could use a pause to rest its forces, mobilise extra troops and acquire more western weapons.

Ukraine and its allies accuse Putin of stalling, and say he is not serious about wanting peace.

PUTIN STAYS AWAY

It was Putin who proposed the direct talks in Turkey, but he spurned a challenge from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to meet him there in person, instead sending a team of mid-level officials. Ukraine responded by naming negotiators of similar rank.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump’s Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg were also in Istanbul, where a flurry of separate diplomatic contacts took place earlier on Friday.

Rubio told reporters on Thursday night that, based on the level of the negotiating teams, a major breakthrough was unlikely.

“I hope I’m wrong. I hope I’m 100% wrong. I hope tomorrow the news says they’ve agreed to a ceasefire; they’ve agreed to enter serious negotiations. But I’m just giving you my assessment, honestly,” he said.

Russia said on Friday it had captured another village in its slow, grinding advance in eastern Ukraine. Minutes before the start of the Istanbul meeting, Ukrainian media reported an air alert and explosions in the city of Dnipro.

Russia says it sees the talks as a continuation of the negotiations that took place in the early weeks of the war in 2022, also in Istanbul.

But the terms under discussion then, when Ukraine was still reeling from Russia’s initial invasion, would be deeply disadvantageous to Kyiv. They included a demand by Moscow for large cuts to the size of Ukraine’s military.

Zelenskiy’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak said Russian attempts to align the current talks with the unsuccessful earlier negotiations would fail.

With Russian forces now in control of close to a fifth of Ukraine, Putin has held fast to his longstanding demands for Kyiv to cede territory, abandon its NATO membership ambitions and become a neutral country.

Ukraine rejects these terms as tantamount to capitulation, and is seeking guarantees of its future security from world powers, especially the United States.

MUTUAL HOSTILITY

Ukraine repelled Russia’s initial assault on the capital Kyiv in 2022 and recaptured swathes of land seized by Russians in the war’s first year. But since then Russian forces have slowly but relentlessly advanced for most of the past two years.

Hundreds of thousands of soldiers have been wounded or killed on both sides. Thousands of Ukrainian civilians have been killed, whole cities have been destroyed and millions of Ukrainians have been forced to flee their homes.

Moscow says it was forced to mount its “special military operation” in response to NATO expansion and the prospect that the western alliance would admit Ukraine as a member and use it as a launchpad to attack Russia. Any settlement of the conflict must address these “root causes”, the Kremlin says.

Kyiv and its allies reject that as a false pretext for what they call an imperial-style land grab.

Oleksandr Syrskyi, Ukraine’s army chief, said late on Thursday that Russia has about 640,000 troops in Ukraine at the moment and had “turned its aggression against Ukraine into a war of attrition”. He said there was active combat along the entire frontline, stretching many hundreds of miles.

 

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