“It’s just too much for a little kid to have to go through,” said Betty Fraire, tears rolling down her face, referring to her 9-year-old grandson. “Us adults, too, we are trying to stay strong, for them, for our community, but it’s just too much.”

Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/05/30/rosaries-bouquets-tiny-caskets-uvalde-begins-bury-its-dead/

President Joe Biden told reporters on Monday he spent more than three and a half hours with survivors and the families of victims of last week’s mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, where a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School.

Returning to Washington, Biden said the pain he witnessed in Uvalde was “palpable” and “unnecessary” and that he was — and always had been — committed to gun control efforts intended to reduce more violence.

But there was only so much he could do as a president, he said. Major changes would need to be authorized by Congress, where a bipartisan group of lawmakers are again in negotiations over a possible bill despite how divided they remain over guns.

When a reporter asked Biden outside the White House if he felt more motivated to act on legislation now, in the wake of recent shootings such as Uvalde, he said he has been “motivated all along.”

“I’m going to continue to push and we’ll see how this works,” he said.

“I can’t outlaw a weapon. I can’t change the background checks,” he said. This is where the legislature should act, he said.

For example, he said, “It makes no sense to be able to purchase something that can fire up to 300 rounds.”

He told reporters how as a senator he once spoke with trauma doctors who showed him an X-Ray of the damage a high-caliber weapon can inflict on the body — how “a .22-caliber bullet will lodge in a lung and we could probably get it out, may be able to get it and save the life, [but] a 9 mm bullet blows the lung out of the body.”

“The idea of these high-caliber weapon, there’s simply no rational basis for it, in terms of whether this be about self-protection, hunting,” he said.

“The Constitution, the Second Amendment, was never absolute,” Biden said. “You couldn’t buy a canon when the Second Amendment was passed. You couldn’t go out and purchase a lot of weapons.”

The president spoke with reporters moments after stepping off Marine One one day after his visit to Uvalde, where he told a crowd of demonstrators “we will” as they chanted for him to “do something” about gun violence.

The massacre in Texas was preceded less than two weeks earlier by another mass shooting in Buffalo, New York. Ten Black people were killed in a grocery store in what authorities suspect was a racially motivated attack.

Those back-to-back killings have prompted a group of bipartisan senators — four Republicans and five Democrats — to engage in initial conversations about new gun laws. Democrats need at least some GOP support, though conservatives largely oppose legislating the issue, instead focusing on the so-called “hardening” of school security and other measures.

The group of lawmakers intended to meet via video over the recess to continue hashing out where they stand and where a possible compromise could be brokered.

“We’re getting started to try to figure out if there’s a path to getting to a consensus, and we’ll see where it takes us,” Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., said last week.

The White House, which took a more direct role in previous legislative priorities, has said the president will observe the process as it proceeds. Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked repeatedly what the administration saw as its role in pushing for a new law.

“We really, truly leave the mechanics up to Sen. Schumer and Speaker Pelosi,” Jean-Pierre said last week, referring to the Senate majority leader and House speaker. “We are confident that Sen. Schumer will bring this forward. And again, it is time for Congress to act. This is what the president has been calling for since the beginning of his administration.”

Biden, who based his 2020 campaign in part on his record of working across the aisle as a senator, was asked on Monday if he thought Republicans would approach the issue differently this time. He said that he hadn’t spoken to any of them, “but my guess is yes, I think they’re going to take a hard look.”

When he landed in Uvalde on Sunday, he and first lady Jill Biden were greeted by state officials including Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, a staunch opponent of the president’s agenda and a proponent of pro-gun laws.

The Bidens’ visit to the Uvalde was focused on meeting with the victims, their families and the first responders to the shooting — not promoting a legislative agenda. The president said Monday at the White House that he “deliberately did not engage in a debate about that with any Republican” during his trip.

He said he would continue to take executive actions regarding firearms and sounded a note of cautious optimism about where the congressional talks may lead.

“I consider Sen. [Minority Leader Mitch] McConnell a rational Republican, and [Sen. John] Cornyn is as well,” he said. “I think there’s a recognition on their part … that we can’t continue like this.”

Source Article from https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/biden-continue-push-gun-compromise-white-house-congress/story?id=85067645

President Biden reportedly told a local Texas official that he wants to tear down Robb Elementary School, where a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers in the deadliest shooting since 20 children and 6 adults died at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut in 2012. 

Democratic state Sen. Roland Gutierrez, who represents Uvalde, told local television station KSAT 12 in an interview that Biden told him “we’re going to raze that school and build a new one.”  

Biden and first lady Jill Biden visited a memorial for the slain students and teachers at Robb Elementary School on Sunday and then attended a mass at Sacred Heart Catholic Church before meeting with the survivors and families of the victims.  

Gutierrez welcomed the president and first lady when they arrived in San Antonio Sunday morning aboard Air Force One.  

The state senator said Biden pledged to support the community, telling him “I’m not going away” and “I’m going to bring your resources.” 

Gutierrez told KSAT 12 that he plans to move a field office to Uvalde to better service his constituents.  

The Department of Justice announced Sunday that it would investigate the police response to the shooting after it was reported that local police officers waited to confront the shooter for more than an hour while children were trapped in a classroom with the killer.  

Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin requested the investigation.  

Gutierrez told CNN’s Dana Bash that one girl who was shot in the back likely bled to death while police waited outside, and may have lived if medical first responders had reached her sooner.  

Source Article from https://thehill.com/news/administration/3506108-local-official-says-biden-wants-to-tear-down-robb-elementary-school-in-uvalde/

President Biden ranted against ownership of what he called “high-caliber weapons” Monday — appearing to suggest that there should be restrictions on the most popular handgun in America, the 9mm pistol, and repeating a previously debunked claim that the Second Amendment prohibits ownership of cannons.

Speaking to reporters outside the White House after returning to Washington from a weekend that included a visit to the site of last week’s mass shooting in Texas, Biden recounted a visit to a trauma hospital in New York, where he said doctors had showed him X-rays of gunshot wounds caused by various firearms.

“They said a .22-caliber bullet will lodge in the lung, and we can probably get it out — may be able to get it and save the life,” Biden said. “A 9mm bullet blows the lung out of the body.

“So the idea of these high-caliber weapons is, uh, there’s simply no rational basis for it in terms of thinking about self-protection, hunting,” the president went on.

Later in his remarks, Biden appeared to rule out the possibility of taking major executive action on guns, saying: “I can’t dictate this stuff. I can do the things I’ve done and any executive action I can take, I’ll continue to take. But I can’t outlaw a weapon. I can’t, you know, change the background checks. I can’t do that.”

Joe and Jill Biden pay their respects at a memorial at Robb Elementary School.
AP

Biden’s statements about 9mm pistols are in keeping with his rhetoric before entering the White House. At a 2019 fundraiser in Seattle, for example, then-candidate Biden asked his audience: “Why should we allow people to have military-style weapons including pistols with 9mm bullets and can hold 10 or more rounds?”

According to Shooting Industry magazine, 9mm pistols accounted for 56.8% of all handguns made in the US during 2019. In all, more than 15.1 million 9mm guns were produced in this country during the 2010s. The possibility of outlawing or otherwise regulating such weapons are likely to be a non-starter among conservatives and gun rights advocates.

“Remember, the Constitution, the Second Amendment, was never absolute,” Biden said. “You couldn’t buy a cannon when the Second Amendment was passed. You couldn’t go out and purchase a lot of weapons.”

Biden seemingly ruled out executive action on gun control.
AFP via Getty Images

Biden has made that claim before, most recently when he announced new regulations to stop the spread of so-called “ghost guns,” and they have been repeatedly declared false by fact-checkers.

“The Second Amendment did not place limits on individual ownership of cannons,” PolitiFact stated in April when it rated his claim false.

The website pointed out the text of the Constitution: “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”​

Despite widespread public outrage over Tuesday’s massacre at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, and the racially-motivated May 14 mass shooting at a Buffalo grocery store, Biden said he had not yet spoken with any Republicans about potential gun control legislation, but expressed hope for a compromise.

“I think things have gotten so bad that everybody is getting more rational about it,” he said. “At least, that’s my hope and prayer.”

Asked whether Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) authorizing Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) to work with Democrats could lead to results, Biden said “I don’t know.”

“I think Senator McConnell is a rational Republican. I think Cornyn is as well,” he added. “I think there’s a recognition in their part that they — we can’t continue like this.  We can’t do this.”

Without Republican support, Democrats are powerless to pass any gun legislation in the 50-50 Senate unless they manage to temporarily set aside the filibuster’s 60-vote threshold for passing most bills. 

Biden called Mitch McConnell a “rational Republican.”
Getty Images

Biden’s comments came fewer than 48 hours after Vice President Kamala Harris called for an assault weapons ban after attending a funeral for Buffalo shooting victim Ruth Whitfield, 86.

“You know what an assault weapon is? You know how an assault weapon was designed?” Harris said Saturday. “It was designed for a specific purpose – to kill a lot of human beings quickly. An assault weapon is a weapon of war with no place, no place in a civil society.”

Source Article from https://nypost.com/2022/05/30/biden-goes-on-anti-gun-tirade-suggests-theres-no-rational-basis-for-9mm-pistols/

A memorial for Irma Garcia, a fourth-grade teacher killed in last week’s school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. Her husband, Joe, died of a heart attack two days later.

Jae C. Hong/AP


hide caption

toggle caption

Jae C. Hong/AP

A memorial for Irma Garcia, a fourth-grade teacher killed in last week’s school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. Her husband, Joe, died of a heart attack two days later.

Jae C. Hong/AP

A fundraiser for the family of Irma and Joe Garcia – a teacher killed in the Uvalde school shooting, and her husband who died of a heart attack two days later – has raised more than $2.7 million.

Irma, a fourth-grade teacher who’d worked at the school for more than 20 years, was killed in her classroom in the shooting last Tuesday, along with another teacher and 19 students at Robb Elementary School.

Her husband of 24 years died of a heart attack on Thursday, a family member said. Together, the couple had four children: Cristian, Jose, Lyliana and Alysandra.

“She loved her classroom kids and died trying to protect them,” wrote Debra Austin, Irma’s cousin, on the GoFundMe page. “I truly believe Joe died of a broken heart and losing the love of his life of more than 25 years was too much to bear.”

The fundraiser for the Garcia family has received nearly 50,000 donations.

Millions have been donated to Uvalde fundraisers verified by GoFundMe for individuals and families affected by the shooting.

“Our family is devastated. This heart wrenching time has changed us forever,” wrote Vinnie Salazar, the father of Layla, an 11-year-old budding track athlete who loved to run, as her family told CNN.

“José was the brightest little boy so loving and so joyful,” wrote Stephanie Bocanegra, a family friend helping raise money for the parents of José Flores.

Nine-year-old Kendall Olivarez was hospitalized with a gunshot wound to the shoulder, her aunt wrote in a fundraiser seeking help with medical bills.

The father of Samuel Salinas, an injured student who told ABC News he played dead, wrote that “our goal is to help Samuel get through this tragic time as healthy as possible.”

A wider-reaching Robb Elementary memorial fund has been organized by First State Bank of Uvalde. The fund is designed to cover immediate financial needs of those affected by the shooting, the Texas governor’s office says, including “healthcare expenses, flights and travel for families and loved ones.” More information about how to donate can be found here.

And an anonymous donor gave $175,000 to cover funeral costs for the victims, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced Friday.

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2022/05/30/1102059629/fundraiser-uvalde-teacher-children

Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/05/30/cars-slam-into-crowd-lincoln-nebraska/9993375002/

KRAMATORSK, Ukraine (AP) — Russian troops pushed farther into a key eastern Ukrainian city and fought street by street with Kyiv’s forces Monday in a battle the mayor said has left the city in ruins and driven tens of thousands of people from their homes.

Military analysts painted the fight for Sievierodonetsk as part of a race against time for the Kremlin. The city is key to Russian efforts to complete the capture of the eastern industrial region of the Donbas quickly — before more Western arms arrive to bolster Ukraine’s defense.

Weapons from the West have already helped Kyiv’s forces thwart a Russian advance on the capital in the early weeks of the war. That failure forced Moscow to withdraw, regroup, and pursue the more limited objective of seizing the Donbas, where Moscow-backed separatists already held swaths of territory and have been fighting Ukrainian troops for eight years.

“The Kremlin has reckoned that it can’t afford to waste time and should use the last chance to extend the separatist-controlled territory because the arrival of Western weapons in Ukraine could make it impossible,” Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov said.

But in a potential setback for Ukraine, President Joe Biden appeared to dismiss reports that the U.S. was considering sending long-range rocket systems to the country.

In addition to pleading for weapons from allies, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has also repeatedly insisted that European countries and others must punish Russia for its aggression, with sanctions and embargos on Moscow’s lucrative energy sector. In a video address Monday to European Union leaders, Zelenskyy asked the 27 nations of the bloc to target Russian oil exports, so Moscow “feels the price for what it is doing against Ukraine.”

The leaders are considering an embargo on Russian oil — but struggling to find consensus.

Russia has also sought to use its energy exports to its advantage, cutting off natural gas to a handful of European countries in what was seen as an effort to punish and divide the West over its support for Ukraine. In its latest move, Russian state gas giant Gazrpom said it will halt gas supplies to Dutch gas trader GasTerra starting Tuesday.

The Russian military’s focus on Sievierodonetsk has already left the city “completely ruined,” Mayor Oleksandr Striuk said. Artillery barrages have destroyed critical infrastructure and damaged 90% of the buildings, and power and communications have been largely cut to a city that was once home to 100,000 people.

“The number of victims is rising every hour, but we are unable to count the dead and the wounded amid the street fighting,” Striuk told The Associated Press in a phone interview, adding that Moscow’s troops advanced a few more blocks toward the city center.

He said that only about 12,000 to 13,000 residents remain, sheltering in basements and bunkers to escape the Russian bombardment — a situation that recalls the siege of Mariupol that trapped residents and led to some of the worst suffering of the war.

Striuk estimated that 1,500 civilians have died in his city since the war began, from Russian attacks as well as from the dire conditions, including a lack of medicine or medical treatment. More than 20,000 are feared dead in Mariupol.

A 32-year-old French journalist, Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff, died Monday near Sievierodonetsk when he was hit by shrapnel from shelling while covering Ukrainians evacuating the area, according to his employer, French broadcaster BFM TV.

Beyond long sieges of cities, Russia’s troops have also been accused of carrying out targeted killings and other atrocities in areas they briefly held around Kyiv early in the war. On Monday, prosecutors submitted the first rape case of the war to a court — the last step before a trial begins. The 31-year-old Russian soldier, who is accused of killing a man and raping his wife in Bohdanivka, a village northeast of Kyiv, will be tried in absentia, officials said.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian military said Russian forces reinforced their positions on the northeastern and southeastern outskirts of Sievierodonetsk, 145 kilometers (90 miles) south of the Russian border in an area that is the last pocket of Ukrainian government control in Luhansk.

Luhansk Gov. Serhiy Haidai said the Russians were also pushing toward nearby Lysychansk. In addition to the journalist, two civilians were killed in the latest Russian shelling, he said.

Three civilians were also killed Monday in the Donetsk region, which together with Luhansk makes up the Donbas, the governor said. Authorities in Kharkiv reported one dead in the latest shelling of Ukraine’s second-largest city.

The Russian advance in Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk on either side of the strategically important Siverskiy Donetsk River is part of an all-out push, Zhdanov said.

The intensity of the latest fighting and the fact that Russia has poured troops in from their far east have come as a surprise to the Ukrainians, who are trying to hold out until more weapons can arrive, Zhdanov said.

On Monday, Biden told reporters that there are no plans for the U.S. to send long-range rocket systems to Ukraine, amid reports that the move is being considered.

Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy head of Russia’s Security Council, said that was a “reasonable” decision.

He said that “otherwise, if our cities come under attack, the Russian armed forces would fulfill their threat and strike the centers where such criminal decisions are made.”

Medvedev added that “some of them aren’t in Kyiv.”

Russian pressure also continued in the south on Monday. Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said an artillery strike on a shipyard in the southern port of Mykolaiv destroyed Ukrainian armored vehicles parked there.

In the Kherson region, the Russia-installed deputy head of the regional administration, Kirill Stremousov, told Russia’s Tass state news agency that grain from last year’s harvest is being delivered to Russian buyers, adding that “obviously there is a lot of grain here.” Ukraine has accused Russia of looting grain from territories its forces hold, and the U.S. has alleged Moscow is jeopardizing global food supplies by preventing Ukraine from exporting its harvest.

Russia, meanwhile, has pressed the West to lift sanctions against it as it seeks to shift the blame for the growing food crisis — which has led to skyrocketing prices in Africa.

Zelenskyy urged France not to succumb to such “blackmail” as the Ukrainian president met Monday with French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna.

___

Karmanau reported from Lviv. AP journalists around the world contributed to this report.

___

Follow AP’s coverage of the Ukraine war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Source Article from https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-zelenskyy-government-and-politics-moscow-a82d4539f85e472f9a36a378413b748c

Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/05/30/hurricane-agatha-mexico-coast/9992341002/

As a gunman entered Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, and started firing, one student said his wounded teacher texted 911 for help.

Daniel, 9, alongside his mother, Briana Ruiz, told CNN the gunman fired several shots into his classroom after being unable to enter. The door had been locked by his teacher, and the bullets fired struck the teacher as well as a classmate.

The deadly rampage at Robb Elementary marked at least the 30th shooting at a K-12 school in just the first five months of this year. It was the deadliest school shooting since the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre.

Daniel survived by first “hiding under a table next to the wall.” He said he could see the gunman through the door’s window.

“I could still see his face,” the boy said. “I could see him staring at people in front of me.”

Daniel later climbed out of a broken window to escape, cutting his hand on some glass, he said, and the two people injured in his class would survive.

But his cousin, Ellie Garcia, was in a different classroom. She was one of 19 children and two teachers killed in the worst school shooting in a decade, and less than a week later, major questions remain about the timeliness of the law enforcement response and whether more children could have been saved.

The Texas Department of Public Safety has laid out a timeline of the Tuesday shooting, showing the gunman was in a classroom with students for more than an hour before he was shot and killed by a Border Patrol tactical response team. Officers arrived at the school within minutes, but the commander on scene decided to wait over an hour for reinforcements, even as children locked inside the room with the gunman called 911 and begged for police help.

Video taken from the outside of the school during the incident, obtained by ABC News, includes what appears to be dispatch audio informing officers on scene a child is calling 911 from a classroom.

“Advise we do have a child on the line,” the dispatcher says. “Child is advising he is in the room full of victims.”

The video indicates police at the scene were informed at least one child remained alive inside the classrooms.

CNN has not been able to independently confirm the video/audio. The source of the video is unclear and it is unclear at what point in the incident the audio is heard. CNN has reached out to authorities to answer questions about this audio.

Texas DPS Director Steve McCraw told reporters Friday there were at least eight 911 calls from at least two separate callers from inside the school, covering a span of nearly 50 minutes.

At the request of Uvalde’s mayor, the US Department of Justice announced it will conduct an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the shooting.

“The goal of the review is to provide an independent account of law enforcement actions and responses that day, and to identify lessons learned and best practices to help first responders prepare for and respond to active shooter events,” the DOJ said in a statement Sunday.

Alfred Garcia, whose daughter was killed in the shooting, told CNN he was in “disbelief” over how much time elapsed during the shooting before it ended and shared his frustration with authorities’ response.

“It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that it just took too long to get in there and, you know, had they gotten there sooner, and someone would have taken immediate action, we might have more of those children here today, including my daughter,” he said.

Two funerals set for today

Funeral services for two victims are set to take place at local funeral homes Monday. Visitation and Rosary for 10-year-old Amerie Jo Garza will take place Monday at Hillcrest Memorial Funeral Home, and services for 10-year-old Maite Yuleana Rodriguez will take place at Rushing Estes Knowles.

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden visited Uvalde Sunday to pay their respects, attending Mass and laying flowers at a memorial for the victims. The two also met privately with family members of the victims as well as first responders.

In an interview with CNN affiliate KSAT, Texas state Senator Roland Gutierrez said Biden told him “we’re going to look to raze that school, build a new one.” Gutierrez said there is a federal grant process for schools like Columbine and other schools to raze these schools. Sandy Hook Elementary was rebuilt after the 2012 shooting, for example.

“What kind of world are we living in that legislation was created for razing these schools?” Gutierrez asked during the interview.

According to Gutierrez, Biden also told him, “I’m not going away … I’m gonna bring you resources … look to getting real money for mental health care.” There is only one psychiatrist in Uvalde, according to the senator.

Law enforcement response called into question

The actions undertaken by first responders – or lack thereof – during the shooting has been a focal point for those who say more should have been done sooner.

Law enforcement officers in Texas are trained to intervene quickly, according to active shooter guidelines in the state’s commission on law enforcement 2020 training manual obtained by CNN. The manual states an “officer’s first priority is to move in and confront the attacker.”

“As first responders we must recognize that innocent life must be defended,” it says. “A first responder unwilling to place the lives of the innocent above their own safety should consider another career field.”

Seven officers arrived at the scene within two minutes of the shooter firing in the classroom. Three officers approached the locked classroom where the gunman was, and two officers suffered graze wounds from bullets fired from behind the door, DPS said. Officers then stationed down the hallway.

Border Patrol agents belonging to a specialized unit arrived at the scene around 12:15 p.m., roughly 45 minutes after the gunman began shooting. The officer in charge had already made the determination the subject was barricaded in the room, according to a source familiar with the situation.

The team then did not breach the classroom for at least another 30 minutes, according to the timeline provided by DPS. Because the Border Patrol often serves in a support role, they will defer to the agency on command, according to the source.

A 911 call placed at 12:16 p.m., according to DPS, from a girl in one of the classrooms where students were shot told the operator eight or nine students were still alive.

When asked Friday why officers didn’t move in sooner, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw said “it was believed at the time that the subject was stationary and barricaded,” adding they believed “there was no risk to other children.”

“On retrospect, from where I’m sitting right now – clearly there was kids in the room, clearly they’re at risk,” McCraw said. “There may be kids that are injured, that may have been shot but injured and it’s important for lifesaving purposes to immediately get there and render aid.”

Community comes together

In the wake of the shooting, an outpouring of support to those in the community is being provided.

Carlos Hernandez, whose restaurant is a mile from Robb Elementary, wrote on Facebook hours after the shooting, “There’s no possible way I can open my kitchen with a broken heart and have fun doing it.”

On Thursday – his 33rd birthday – Hernandez decided to cook for the community, whipping up favorite dishes, including wings, mac-and-cheese and fried fish tacos.

Within two hours, Hernandez had given away more than 60 family-sized platters to feed mourning families and neighbors who are still learning how to cope with the tragedy inflicted on their tight-knit community.

“It’s a real tough situation, I’m just trying to show the kids that they do have us as their backbone and a support system,” Hernandez told CNN. “We always provide, whether there is an incident or no incident.”

Elsewhere in Uvalde, the El Progreso Memorial Library has become a place of healing.

On Wednesday, just a day after the shooting, children’s librarian Martha Carreon sat in front of rows of little faces, reading, singing, and giggling with the children, taking them away to a safe place far from the school where many of them became witness to horror.

“We want our building to be a safe space, a refuge that is a quiet, calm and cool haven,” El Progreso Memorial Library director Mendell Morgan told CNN.

Along with psychologists who will be available every weekday for children and adults to talk to, there will also be massage therapy practitioners, volunteers for arts and craft activities, pianists to play soothing music, and even magicians to hold professional magic shows.

“This is a strong community where we have true care and concern for one another,” Morgan said. “Many, if not most here, hold fast to their faith believing in God, that good is stronger than evil and light is stronger than dark.”

CNN’s Alaa Elassar, Ed Lavandera, Amanda Watts, Hannah Sarisohn, Virginia Langmaid, Paula Reid, Priscilla Alvarez, Jennifer Henderson, Christina Maxouris, Holly Yan and Aya Elamroussi contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/30/us/uvalde-texas-elementary-school-shooting-monday/index.html

Russian tanks and troops have begun advancing into Sievierodonetsk, the largest city in Donbas still held by Ukraine, witnesses and officials have said.

“Unfortunately we have disappointing news: the enemy is moving into the city,” the Luhansk regional governor, Serhiy Gaidai, told Ukrainian national television on Monday.

Witnesses said Russian tanks were advancing towards the centre of the city one blast at a time, razing everything in their path that remains following intense shelling that Ukrainian authorities have said has led to conditions on the ground reminiscent of Mariupol.

“They [the Russian army] use the same tactics over and over again,” Gaidai said. “They shell for several hours – for three, four, five hours – in a row and then attack. Those who attack die. Then the shelling and attack follow again, and so on until they break through somewhere.”

Witnesses said the city was being bombed “200 times an hour” as Russian forces try to cut off reinforcement lines and surround its remaining defenders.

Russia’s advance on Sievierodonetsk

The city’s mayor, Oleksandr Striuk, confirmed in a telephone interview with the Associated Press that Russian troops had “advanced a few blocks towards the city centre”. He said Ukrainian forces were fighting to push the Russians out in street fighting and that the 12,000-13,000 civilians left in the city were sheltering in basements and bunkers to escape relentless bombardment.

Local authorities estimated that 1,500 civilians had already died in Russian attacks on Sievierodonetsk, including from a lack of medicines. Striuk said the city had “been completely ruined” and that the number of victims was “rising every hour, but we are unable to count the dead and the wounded amid the street fighting”.

The battle for Sievierodonetsk, which lies on the eastern bank of the Siverskyi Donets River, about 145km (90 miles) south of the Russian border, is in the spotlight as Russia grinds out slow but solid gains in the industrial Donbas, which comprises the self-proclaimed republics in Luhansk and Donetsk.

Having failed to take the national capital, Kyiv, in the early phase of the war, Russia is seeking to consolidate its grip on Donbas, large parts of which are already controlled by Moscow-backed separatists. It has concentrated huge firepower on a small area – in contrast to the earlier phase of the conflict, when its forces were often spread thinly – bludgeoning towns and cities with artillery and airstrikes.

“They don’t care how many lives they will have to pay for this,” said Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in his latest national address, referring to Russian forces in the region.

Russia has also stepped up its efforts to take the neighbouring city of Lysychansk, where, according to Gaidai, a Russian shell fell on a residential building over the weekend, killing a child.

According to Ukrainian officials, Lysychansk is still under Ukrainian control, while the main road into the two cities has been shelled, but not blocked.

“The liberation of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, recognised by the Russian Federation as independent states, is an unconditional priority,” Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, told French TV on Sunday, adding that other Ukrainian territories should decide their future on their own.

Source Article from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/30/russians-advance-largest-city-donbas-ukrainian-hands-sievierodonetsk

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Bands of rain and gusty winds lashed Mexico’s southern Pacific coast Monday as the first hurricane of the eastern Pacific season, advanced slowly toward a stretch of tourist beaches and fishing towns.

Ominous grey skies and blowing sand cleared beaches in the popular destinations of Puerto Escondido and Huatulco.

National emergency officials said they had assembled a task force of more than 9,300 people for the area and more than 200 shelters were opened as forecasters warned of dangerous storm surge and flooding from heavy rains.

After forming on Sunday, Agatha quickly gained power, and it was predicted to make landfall as a strong Category 2 hurricane Monday afternoon or evening, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

Late Monday morning, Agatha accelerated slightly, as it moved toward the area near Puerto Escondido and Puerto Angel in the southern state of Oaxaca. The region includes the laid-back tourist resorts of Huatulco, Mazunte and Zipolite.

The hurricane center said Agatha could “bring an extremely dangerous storm surge and life-threatening winds.”

Agatha had maximum sustained winds of 110 mph (175 kph) — just 1 mph under the threshold for a Category 3, the hurricane center said. The storm’s center was about 50 miles (80 kilometers) southwest of Puerto Angel and heading to the northeast at 8 mph (13 kph).

The U.S. National Hurricane Center said the storm was expected to drop 10 to 16 inches (250 to 400 millimeters) of rain on parts of Oaxaca, with isolated maximums of 20 inches (500 millimeters), posing the threat of flash floods and mudslides.

Little change in strength was expected before the storm makes landfall, according to the hurricane center. A hurricane warning was in effect between the port of Salina Cruz and the Lagunas de Chacahua.

In Huatulco, municipal authorities cancelled schools and ordered “the absolute closure” of all beaches and its seven bays, many of which are reachable only by boat.

To the west in Zipolite, long known for its clothing-optional beach and bohemian vibe, hotel workers were gathering out outdoor furniture and installing storm shutters.

The government’s Mexican Turtle Center — a former slaughterhouse turned conservation center in Mazunte — announced it was closed to visitors until further notice because of the hurricane.

Source Article from https://apnews.com/article/floods-storms-travel-hurricanes-2c8a0250ba25275412d8d4564cc00c6d

Paul Pelosi, right, the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, of California, follows his wife as she arrives for her weekly news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington in March. Authorities say Paul Pelosi was arrested on suspicion of DUI in Northern California, late Saturday.

Andrew Harnik/AP


hide caption

toggle caption

Andrew Harnik/AP

Paul Pelosi, right, the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, of California, follows his wife as she arrives for her weekly news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington in March. Authorities say Paul Pelosi was arrested on suspicion of DUI in Northern California, late Saturday.

Andrew Harnik/AP

NAPA, Calif. — Paul Pelosi, the 82-year-old husband of U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, was arrested this weekend on suspicion of DUI in Northern California, police records showed Sunday.

Paul Pelosi was taken into custody late Saturday in Napa County north of San Francisco, according to a sheriff’s office online booking report.

He could face charges including driving under the influence and driving with a blood alcohol content level of 0.08 or higher, the report said.

Pelosi’s bail was set for $5,000 for the two misdemeanors, records showed.

No other details were immediately available. California Highway Patrol Officer Andrew Barclay said more information would be released later Sunday.

Drew Hammill, spokesperson for Nancy Pelosi, told The Associated Press: “The Speaker will not be commenting on this private matter which occurred while she was on the East Coast.”

The House speaker was in Providence, Rhode Island, on Sunday, where she delivered the commencement address at Brown University.

Pelosi’s arrest was first reported by TMZ.

Paul and Nancy Pelosi have been married since 1963.

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2022/05/30/1102036672/paul-pelosi-husband-arrest-dui

President Biden told a local lawmaker while visiting Uvalde on Sunday that the federal government may provide resources to raze Robb Elementary School, where 19 children and two teachers were shot and killed earlier this week. 

“He said, ‘I’m not going away. I’m going to bring you resources. We’re going to look to raze that school, build a new one,’” state Sen. Roland Gutierrez, who represents Uvalde, told KSAT. 

“I can’t tell you how many little children that I’ve talked to that don’t want to go into that building. They’re just traumatized. They’re just destroyed.” 

Other sites of mass shootings have been demolished in recent years. 

Sandy Hook Elementary School, where a gunman shot and killed 26 people in 2012, was torn down and replaced by a new $50 million school on the same property in Newtown, Connecticut. 

School officials in Colorado were considering razing Columbine High School in 2019 due to a “morbid fascination” surrounding the building where 13 people were murdered in 1999, but they ultimately decided not to tear it down. 

President Biden and first lady Jill Biden visited a memorial at Robb Elementary School on Sunday.
Evan Vucci/AP

The congregation at First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas, which is about 110 miles east of Uvalde, voted last year to tear down the old church where a gunman opened fire in 2017, killing 26 people, according to KENS. 

Biden also told Gutierrez that he’s committed to bringing mental health resources to the community in the wake of this week’s shooting. 

U.S. president Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden visit and lay a flower bouquet at a cross memorial in front of Robb Elementary School, in Uvalde, Texas.
ZUMAPRESS.com

“This is a community that is going to need therapy. There is one psychiatrist in Uvalde, very few mental health therapists. We’re going to change that. It is a must,” Gutierrez told KSAT

The president visited a memorial outside of Robb Elementary School on Sunday before attending mass at Sacred Heart Catholic Church then meeting with victims’ families and first responders. 

Source Article from https://nypost.com/2022/05/30/president-biden-suggests-razing-robb-elementary-school-where-21-people-were-killed-state-senator-says/

Vikki and Mark Pier visit the grave of their son, Noah, who was buried at Arlington National Cemetery in July 2011. They used to visit every few months, but they have been unable to make it in recent years.

Erin Stalnaker


hide caption

toggle caption

Erin Stalnaker

Vikki and Mark Pier visit the grave of their son, Noah, who was buried at Arlington National Cemetery in July 2011. They used to visit every few months, but they have been unable to make it in recent years.

Erin Stalnaker

For many years, Vikki and Mark Pier would come during Memorial Day weekend to Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, where they would visit the final resting place of their son, Marine Lance Cpl. Noah Miles Pier, who was killed on Feb. 16, 2010, while fighting in Afghanistan.

The Piers said they had no words to describe how they felt when they found out Noah was killed. Beyond heartbroken or devastated, they said. But when Marine Corps officials asked where they would like to bury their son, they knew exactly where: Arlington.

“Mark and I both didn’t hesitate when choosing that that was the most fitting place for Noah to be because he did love history,” Vikki said. “They said he could be buried in Arlington, or a cemetery of our choice, and we just chose Arlington because, you know, he was from there,” Mark added.

Noah spent the first 11 years of his life in Fairfax, Va., just 18 miles away from the cemetery, before the family moved to Charlotte, N.C. Mark and Vikki said Noah was fascinated by American history as a kid. He also had an unquenchable thirst for adventure and love for the outdoors. Those attributes combined with a long family history of military service — Noah had always dreamed of joining the Marine Corps.

Vikki and Mark with Noah at Camp Geiger, N.C., Feb. 27, 2008.

Vikki Pier


hide caption

toggle caption

Vikki Pier

Vikki and Mark with Noah at Camp Geiger, N.C., Feb. 27, 2008.

Vikki Pier

The Piers made the six-hour drive from Charlotte to Arlington every few months after burying Noah, including over Memorial Day weekend, Mark and Vikki said. They would set up chairs and sit at his grave for hours, remembering and reflecting. Vikki was always hesitant when it came time to leave.

“Mark said something to me that I just say as kind of a mantra now, ‘Vikki, you’ll never have enough time. There will never be enough time.’ Because it just kept feeling like I needed more. I need more,” Vikki said. “It’s somewhere that’s a good place to go, open our chairs and sit. Then it’s very hard to leave.”

Mark and Vikki decided to move with their four youngest children less than a year after Noah’s death. They moved to a small town about an hour west of Charlotte, keeping up with regular trips to Arlington for several years.

Every year, members from every branch of the military participate in placing flags on more than 400,000 tombstones on the cemetery grounds.

Rachel Larue/U.S. Army/Arlington National Cemetery


hide caption

toggle caption

Rachel Larue/U.S. Army/Arlington National Cemetery

Every year, members from every branch of the military participate in placing flags on more than 400,000 tombstones on the cemetery grounds.

Rachel Larue/U.S. Army/Arlington National Cemetery

But the Piers became plagued by a series of health issues, which made traveling to Arlington more difficult. Knowing they couldn’t see Noah’s grave as often as they wished, Mark erected a memorial on their property. And in recent years, the Piers family — all nine children and 12 grandchildren — have gathered at Mark and Vikki’s on Memorial Day.

They don’t see it as a holiday or an event to be celebrated, but more of a day of reflection. They hang the American flag high and write letters to Noah on red balloons. They play games with the kids and cook up some of Noah’s favorite foods and share stories.

“Memorial Day isn’t a day to be celebrated,” Mark said. “But we do come together as a family,” Vikki added.

It’s been four years since they last visited Noah’s grave in Arlington.

It pains Mark and Vikki to have been away from the cemetery for so long. But they know they will go back as soon as possible. Vikki said she hopes that she and Mark can manage to make the journey for Noah’s birthday on July 28; he would have turned 38 this year.

“It breaks my heart,” Vikki said. “My heart is in Arlington. It is. I’m not physically there, but I do wish I could go and just touch the ground and sit with him.”

Former Cpl. Dustin Jones served with the 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, from 2007 to 2010 with deployments to both Iraq and Afghanistan. He served with Lance Cpl. Noah Pier.

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2022/05/30/1101997394/memorial-day-arlington-gold-star-family-commemorates

The European Union on Monday will continue to work toward an agreement to embargo Russian oil after attempts to do so on Sunday failed.

The talks are largely held up by Hungary, a major user of Russian oil and whose leader Viktor Orban has been on friendly terms with Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

Budapest over the weekend signaled support for a European Commission proposal that would apply sanctions only on Russian oil brought into the EU by tankers, which would allow landlocked energy importers Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic to continue to receive their Russian oil via pipeline until alternative sources can be found. Talks were held up however by demands from Hungary for EU financing.

It had been hoped leaders could reach an agreement in time for their Monday-Tuesday summit in Brussels, Belgium, to illustrate the bloc’s unity in response to the Kremlin’s onslaught. Failure to secure any type of deal would likely be heralded as a victory for Putin.

A spokesperson for the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, declined to comment on the ongoing proposals.

On arriving in Brussels for a summit of the 27 national EU leaders, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said, “We are not there yet.”

“My expectations are low that it will be solved in the next 48 hours. But I’m confident that thereafter there will be a possibility,” she added.

Roughly 36% of the EU’s oil imports come from Russia, a country that plays an outsized role in global oil markets.

To be sure, Russia is the world’s third-largest oil producer, behind the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, and the world’s largest exporter of crude to global markets. It is also a major producer and exporter of natural gas.

‘We simply have to do it’

The proposed sanctions on oil imports would be part of the EU’s sixth sanctions package on Russia since it invaded Ukraine nearly 100 days ago.

The five previous rounds of measures have included restricted access to capital markets, freezing Russia’s central bank assets, excluding Russian financial institutions from SWIFT and banning imports of Russian coal and other commodities, among others.

Talks to impose an oil embargo have been underway since the start of the month, although no tangible progress has been made since von der Leyen said member states would ban all Russian oil from Europe.

“Today, we are addressing our dependency on Russian oil. And let’s be clear, it will not be easy because some member states are strongly dependent on Russian oil, but we simply have to do it,” von der Leyen told the European Parliament on May 4, prompting applause from lawmakers.

Oil prices edge higher

Oil prices rose on Monday afternoon as market participants closely monitored the prospect of the world’s largest trading bloc agreeing to impose a ban on Russian oil imports.

International benchmark Brent crude futures traded 1.3% higher at $120.92 a barrel in London, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures traded 1.1% higher at $116.36.

Energy prices, already high at the start of this year, have skyrocketed since Putin launched the war against Ukraine.

“Given that Russia is a major producer and exporter of crude oil and refined products an embargo on sales would cause significant financial pain,” said Tamas Varga of oil broker PVM.

“On the other hand, in the absence of firm additional retaliatory measures, the EU still finances Russia in the conflict. In the first three months of the war, it acquired energy in the value of $60 billion, hardly a recipe to cause financial strain for the invader,” Varga said.

“This much the EU admits itself. What is under serious discussion is whether sanctions are the best way to punish Russia or [whether] imposing tariffs would be more effective,” he added.

Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/30/eu-to-discuss-watered-down-oil-embargo-on-russia-as-hungary-holds-firm.html

    Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/30/us/uvalde-texas-elementary-school-shooting-monday/index.html