Nine soldiers have been killed after two US army helicopters crashed in Kentucky, according to an official.
Crew members were flying the HH-60 Blackhawk helicopters during a routine night-time training exercise before the fatal incident in Cadiz, Trigg County, the Fort Campbell army base said in a statement.
One aircraft had five soldiers while the other was carrying four and they were using night-vision goggles - all those on board died.
Image:Debris from the helicopter crash
"Right now our focus is on the soldiers and their families who were involved," the statement added.
It is not clear if the two medical evacuation helicopters crashed into each other.
US army secretary Christine Wormuth called it a "heavy day", with the accident one of the worst for the military in recent years.
The two aircraft came down about 30 miles (48km) northwest of Fort Campbell around 10pm local time on Wednesday (3am on Thursday UK time).
"The crash occurred in a field, some wooded area," Kentucky state police trooper Sarah Burgess said.
"At this time, there are no reports of residence damage."
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There were no injuries on the ground and the incident is now being investigated, with a safety team heading to the site.
'We saw a huge glow like a fireball'
Local resident Nick Tomaszewski, who lives about a mile from the crash scene, said he saw two helicopters fly over his house moments before the tragedy.
"For whatever reason last night my wife and I were sitting there looking out on the back deck and I said, 'Wow, those two helicopters look low and they look kind of close to one another tonight'," he said.
The aircraft flew over and looped back around and moments later "we saw what looked like a firework [going] off in the sky".
"All of the lights in their helicopter went out... then we saw a huge glow like a fireball," he added.
Image:A HH-60 Black Hawk helicopter. File pic from US army
Flyovers for training exercises take place almost daily and the helicopters usually fly low but not so close together, Mr Tomaszewski continued.
The helicopters involved were from the 101st Airborne Division which is known as the "Screaming Eagles".
The HH-60 is a variant of the Black Hawk helicopter designed to provide support for various military operations, including air assaults and medical evacuations, according to the army.
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Russia’s top security agency says it has arrested a reporter for The Wall Street Journal over alleged espionage.
Journalist Evan Gershkovich was arrested in Yekaterinburg on spying charges, according to Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) – the successor to the KGB.
He was brought to Moscow where a court at a closed hearing ordered him held in pre-trial detention until 29 May. The TASS state news agency said he pleaded not guilty. The authorities released no evidence publicly and the case is said to have been marked “top secret”.
The arrest is the most serious public move against an international journalist since Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year. Espionage charges against someone from an American news outlet have not been seen since the end of the Cold War – with the detention coming amid a bitter war of words between Moscow and Washington over the Ukraine war. If convicted, Mr Gershkovich could face up to 20 years in prison.
The Wall Street Journal said in a statement it was “deeply concerned” for Mr Gershkovich’s safety and that it “vehemently denies the allegations from the FSB and seeks the immediate release of our trusted and dedicated reporter”.
Daniil Berman, a lawyer representing Mr Gershkovich, was not permitted inside the courtroom or allowed to see the charges, he told reporters outside. Mr Berman said he believed Mr Gershkovich would be taken to Lefortovo, the 19th century central Moscow jail notorious in Soviet times for holding political prisoners.
The US has been full-throated in its support of Kyiv, with Russia’s president Vladimir Putin having repeatedly hit out at Washington – and the wider West – for the weapons it is providing Ukraine. Mr Putin’s rhetoric has only grown more inflammatory as his invasion has faltered amid months of intense fighting in the country’s eastern regions.
Moscow has a habit of using detainees for political leverage. Basketball star Brittney Griner was caught arriving in Moscow with cannabis oil a week before the invasion of Ukraine began and was freed in a prisoner swap in December. Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, told the state RIA news agency that it was too early to talk of a possible prisoner swap for Mr Gershkovich.
Another American, Paul Whelan, a Michigan corporate security executive, has been imprisoned in Russia since December 2018 on espionage charges that his family and the US government have said are baseless.
As for US correspondents being detained by Russia, Nicholas Daniloff, based in Moscow for US News and World Report, was arrested by the KGB in September 1986. The US believed he had been detained in retaliation for the arrest by the FBI of an employee of the Soviet Union’s United Nations mission. Mr Daniloff was released without charges 20 days later, with the UN worker also allowed to leave the US.
Evan Gershkovich leaves the court building in Moscow
(Evgenia Novozhenina/Reuters)
The FSB said it had “stopped the illegal activities of US citizen Gershkovich Evan, born in 1991, a correspondent of the Moscow bureau of the American newspaper The Wall Street Journal, accredited at the Russian foreign ministry, who is suspected of spying in the interests of the American government”.
The Kremlin claimed the reporter had been “caught red-handed”. It was not immediately clear when the journalist was arrested. The FSB said Mr Gershkovich had been tasked “by the American side” with gathering information on “the activities of one of the enterprises of the military defence complex” – believed to be a factory.
The security service did not name the factory or say where it was but added that it had detained the 31-year-old journalist in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg as he was trying to procure secret information. The FSB did not provide documentary or video evidence of his guilt. Mr Gershkovich was reportedly visiting Nizhny Tagil, the site of the Russian battle tank producer Uralvagonzavod, according to Russian news website Meduza, which is based in Latvia. Dozens of companies producing weapons are based in the city.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova claimed that Mr Gershkovich’s activities in Yekaterinburg were “not related to journalism”. Ms Zakharova later suggested there would be an opportunity to verify the allegations as they would be made public. “Relevant statements have been made through our security services... I think [they] will also provide it publicly, and you will have an opportunity to verify it,” she said at an afternoon briefing.
The Kremlin said other journalists working for the US publication in Russia could remain in post, provided they had the right credentials and were carrying out what it called “normal journalistic activity”. A diplomatic source said that the US embassy in Moscow had not been informed about the incident and was seeking information from the Russian authorities about the case.
The Reporters Without Borders group said it was “alarmed” by the arrest of Mr Gershkovich and that it “looks like a retaliation measure of Russia against the United States”.
Andrei Soldatov, an author and expert in Russia’s security agencies who is outside the country, said on social media: “Evan Gershkovich is a very good and brave journalist, not a spy, for Christ’s sake. It [his detention] is a frontal attack on all foreign correspondents who still work in Russia. And it means that the FSB is off the leash.”
Mr Gershkovich covers Russia, Ukraine and the former Soviet Union for the WSJ. He has previously worked with news agency Agence France-Presse, The Moscow Times and The New York Times.
Russia has tightened censorship laws since the start of the Ukraine invasion, bringing in jail terms for people deemed to have “discredited” the military. This has curtailed all independent Russian news outlets but authorities have continued to accredit some foreign reporters. The definition of what constitutes a state secret, particularly in the military sphere, has been broadened too.
In Mr Gershkovich’s last report, “Russia’s economy is starting to come undone”, Mr Gershkovich reported that the country’s economy felt the heat of Western sanctions and faced a slowdown, adding that the Russian government’s revenue is “being squeezed”.
The news report said the Russian economy was entering a long-term regression.
Bodycam footage shows Nashville police searching Christian school for gunman
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Jill Biden attended a candlelight vigil in Nashville on Wednesday night to honour the three children and three adults who were murdered at the Covenant school in the city.
Earlier it emerged that the shooting suspect, Audrey Hale, had previously posted on Facebook about the death of a romantic partner, according to a former teacher.
Art college instructor Maria Colomy, who taught Hale at the Nossi College of Art & Design in Nashville, recalled a social media post from the shooter “openly grieving” the unknown individual and said that Hale had announced the bereavement and asked to be addressed as Aiden and by masculine pronouns from then on.
Three children aged nine – Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney – were shot dead on Monday, as were staff members Katherine Koonce, Cynthia Peak and Mike Hill.
Meanwhile, Nashville police chief John Drake has said that Hale was “under doctor’s care for an emotional disorder” before the killings and had hidden seven legally purchased weapons at home.
How Washington reacted to the Nashville school shooting is sadly unsurprising
Passing a gun bill required just the right circumstances in Washington last year. Those don’t exist any more with Republican control, writes Eric Garcia.
ICYMI: Roughly one in 20 Americans own an AR-15 rifle as firearm’s popularity explodes despite role in mass killings
Alex Woodward has this report on a truly shocking statistic on an assault rifle that was originally intended strictly for military use but which is now owned by 5 per cent of the US population.
Parkland dad calls for national education strike in response to Nashville shooting
The father of a Parkland shooting victim who was violently arrested at the US Capitol has called for a national education strike in response to the Nashville shooting.
Manuel Oliver, whose 17-year-old son Joaquin was fatally shot in the Parkland High School Shooting, has called for “extreme measures” to prevent further gun violence in the US.
“I want to go in a more challenging, disruptive direction. I think we have been very polite,” he told ABC News.
Democrat lawmaker interrupts Marjorie Taylor Greene’s transphobic rant to raise assault weapons ban
One of Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Democratic rivals in the House interrupted her transphobic rant about the Nashville attack during a committee hearing in order to inject his own take on the shooting.
Police have identified the suspected shooter by their name at birth; Hale reportedly was a transgender man who used he/him pronouns, though law enforcement officials initially described the suspect as a woman in the aftermath of the shooting. Police did not provide another name but on the suspect’s social media accounts they refer to themselves as Aiden.
ICYMI: What we know about Nashville school shooter Audrey Hale
Audrey Hale, a former student at the elementary school, allegedly entered The Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, just after 10am.
Inside, the shooter opened fire on students and staff, killing six victims.
Students Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney, all aged nine, headmistress Katherine Koonce, 60, Cynthia Peak, 61, and Mike Hill, 61, all died in the attack.
Two responding police officers shot the suspect dead on the second floor just 14 minutes after arriving at the school.
Democrat and Republican in Capitol shouting match over gun safety: ‘Calm down? Children are dying!’
New York Democrat Jamaal Bowman had been giving a furious speech to reporters in a corridor outside the House of Representatives on Wednesday evening, accusing the Republicans of inaction.
“They’re cowards. They’re all cowards! They won’t do anything to save the lives of our children,” yelled Mr Bowman, a former school principal.
Kentucky GOP representative Thomas Massie then tried to butt in, prompting a shouting match between the two men.
“You know, there’s never been a school shooting in a school that allows teachers to carry [guns],” Mr Massie said.
Up to 31 people have died after a ferry carrying about 250 passengers and crew caught fire in the southern Philippines.
The Coast Guard Commodore Rejard Marfe confirmed that 28 people had drowned or died in the blaze
However, Jim Hataman, governor of Basilan, the southern island province near where the ferry caught fire, said 31 people had died.
Search and rescue efforts are continuing for at least seven missing passengers.
The MV Lady Mary Joy 3 was en route to the Sulu province from the southern port city of Zamboanga when it caught fire close to midnight local time, Mr Hataman said.
The bodies of 18 individuals were discovered in a passenger cabin.
Image:Pic: AP/Philippine Coast Guard
Image:Pic: AP/Philippine Coast Guard
"These victims perished onboard due to the fire," he added.
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At least 23 passengers were injured and taken to hospital. It was discovered that some additional travellers were not listed on the vessel's documentation.
"Some of the passengers were roused from sleep due to the commotion caused by the fire. Some jumped off the ship," Mr Hataman said.
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Image:Pic: AP/Philippine Coast Guard
Frequent storms and badly maintained boats mean that accidents at sea are common in the Philippine archipelago. Overcrowding and patchy health and safety regulations, especially in remote provinces, also contribute.
More than 4,300 people died in December 1987, after the ferry Dona Paz sank after colliding with a fuel tanker. It is known as the world's worst peacetime maritime disaster.
Art college instructor Maria Colomy, who taught Hale at the Nossi College of Art & Design in Nashville, recalled a social media post from the shooter “openly grieving” the unknown individual and said that Hale had announced the bereavement and asked to be addressed as Aiden and by masculine pronouns from then on.
As the investigation continues into the shooter’s possible motives for embarking on Monday’s massacre at a private Christian elementary school in the Green Hills suburb of the Tennessee city, state governor Bill Lee has revealed that he and his wife were friends with murdered teacher Cynthia Peak, one of six people shot dead, and had invited her to dinner that night.
In addition to Peak, three children aged nine – Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney – were shot dead on Monday, as were staff members Katherine Koonce and Mike Hill, the former since described as a hero for selflessly running towards the attacker to protect her charges.
Meanwhile, Nashville police chief John Drake has said that Hale was “under doctor’s care for an emotional disorder” before the killings and had hidden seven legally purchased weapons at her family home.
Police said that the suspect, who was armed with two assault-style rifles and a handgun on Monday, was a former student at the school who had methodically planned the attack and may have harboured “resentment” against the institution.
‘How many children have to die like those in Nashville before the US changes its gun laws?'
For Indy Voices, here’s Victoria Richards with a timely reminder of just how obscene it is that mass shootings like Monday’s horrific events in Nashville have been allowed to become commonplace.
Sabrina star Melissa Joan Hart says she helped kindergarteners escape Nashville attack
Melissa Joan Hart, the former teen star of the original Sabrina the Teenage Witch television series, has taken to Instagram to claim in an emotional video that she and her husband helped a number of pupils from The Covenant School escape Monday’s attack.
The actress explained that she had been on her way to a parent-teacher conference at her own children’s school when they happened to see children racing away from the scene of Audrey Hale’s attack.
Sabrina actor Melissa Joan Hart says she helped children flee Nashville school shooting
“We helped a class of kindergartners across a busy highway,” she told her followers, fighting back tears.
“They were climbing out of the woods. They were trying to escape the shooter situation at their school. So we helped all these tiny little kids cross the road and get [to] their teachers… We helped a mom reunite with her children.
“I don’t just don’t know what to say anymore. Enough is enough. And just pray. Prayer for the families.”
Hart explains in the short clip that she moved to Nashville from Connecticut, where she had lived close to Sandy Hook during that time of the notorious 2012 massacre there.
Senate chaplain calls for lawmakers to ‘move beyond thoughts and prayers’ after Nashville school shooting
Senate chaplain Barry Black used his opening prayer as he opened Congress on Tuesday to move beyond thoughts and prayers after Monday’s deadly shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville.
Mr Black’s opened the gathering of lawmakers by saying: “When babies die at a church, it is time for us to move beyond thoughts and prayer.”
Here’s an update on the furore we reported on earlier over an ill-advised tweet from Arizona governor Katie Hobbs’s spokeswoman Josselyn Berry, which caused state Republicans to demand she be fired.
Nashville school shooter previously posted online about death of partner, says teacher
Nashville school shooting suspect Audrey Hale had previously posted on Facebook about the death of a romantic partner, according to a former teacher.
Art college instructor Maria Colomy, who taught Hale at the Nossi College of Art & Design in Nashville, recalled a Facebook post from the shooter “openly grieving” the individual.
Speaking to The New York Times, Ms Colomy said that Hale had announced the bereavement and asked to be addressed as Aiden and by masculine pronouns from then on.
“She had been openly grieving about that on social media, and during the grieving is when she announced that she wanted to be addressed as a male,” the teacher said.
Despite school shooting, Tennessee's gun laws likely to remain lax
As Nashville residents reel from the fatal grade school shooting that left six dead, a federal judge has quietly cleared the way to drop the minimum age for Tennesseans to carry handguns publicly without a permit to 18 — just two years after a new law set the age at 21.
The move marked yet another relaxation of gun laws in ruby-red Tennessee, where Republican leaders have steadily chipped away at firearms regulations and lambasted those who have warned that doing so comes at a cost.
A federal judge quietly cleared the way to drop the minimum age to 18 for Tennesseans to carry handguns in public without a permit the same day Nashville residents were reeling from a fatal grade school shooting that left six dead, including three children
How Washington reacted to the Nashville school shooting is sadly unsurprising
Passing a gun bill required just the right circumstances in Washington last year. Those don’t exist any more with Republican control, writes Eric Garcia.
Biden acknowledges demand for new gun laws be says he ‘can’t do anything except plead with Congress’
With Republicans controlling the House of Representatives in the wake of last November’s midterms, achieving any meaningful change to firearms regulations is a dimmer prospect than ever right now, hence the president’s dismayed tone.
Right-wing bgun industry apologists are already striving to characterise Audrey Hale’s actions as a mental health matter unrelated to the ready availability of military-grade weapons.
‘The sum of all fears’: Nashville and its religious schools grieve – and worry – after Monday massacre
Nashville’s airwaves were thick with emotion on Tuesday as the famed Music City struggled to come to terms with a school shooting that left three nine-year-olds and three adults dead a day earlier.
Mourners were placing flowers and cards at makeshift memorials near The Covenant School, where the shooting occurred, while religious leaders planned prayer vigils.
The Independent’s Sheila Flynn has this eyewitness report from a city struggling to come to terms with its grief.
Nashville school head teacher ‘ended Zoom call to confront shooter’ before being shot dead
The head of The Covenant School in Nashville, who was one of the six victims of the shooting, confronted the shooter as soon as she heard of the incident, according to an official.
Katherine Koonce, 60, was on a Zoom call when she was informed of the shooting in her school, Nashville city councilman Russ Pulley told Fox News, citing a witness.
Mr Pulley said she “immediately ended” the meeting and did not hesitate to head straight to the shooter.
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At least 39 people have died and at least 29 others are injured after a lethal blaze inside a government-run immigration facility in Mexico near the country’s border with the United States.
The fire broke out inside the National Migration Institute in Ciudad Juarez, across from the US-Mexico border near El Paso, Texas, shortly before 10pm on 27 March, according to Mexico’s National Immigration Institute.
Mexico’s president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said a group of migrants had set fire to highly flammable mattresses in protest after learning they would be deported. “They did not imagine that this was going to cause this terrible tragedy,” he said in his remarks the following morning.
Sixty-eight men were being held inside the building when it was set ablaze, according to authorities. Victims were largely from Central America, though some men were from Venezuela, according to the president.
At least 28 people who died in the fire at the Ciudad Juarez facility were from Guatemala, according to the Guatemalan Migration Institute. Authorities reportedly believe many people died from smoke inhalation.
The office of Mexico’s attorney general has launched an investigation, and the National Human Rights Commission has also been called in to help the migrants impacted by the tragedy.
Ciudad Juarez is a major crossing point for migrants entering the US from Mexico. Local news outlets have reported growing tensions among authorities and migrants held in detention centres as protests break out in other facilities amid stringent border enforcement and dire conditions in migrants’ home countries.
In recent years, as Mexico has stepped up efforts to stem the flow migration to the US border under pressure from the American government, its National Immigration Institute has struggled with overcrowding.
Earlier this month, Ciudad Juarez Mayor Cruz Perez Cuellar announced that the city’s “patience is running out” with its care for migrants.
“We have the obligation of taking care of the city,” he said during a briefing earlier this month.
Human rights groups have denounced what they have called the government’s “criminalization of migrants,” issuing a statement accusing authorities of sending “a message of intimidation”.
Following the fire, local news outlets reported authorities were rounding up migrants.
Emergency response personnel assist dozens of people injured in a fire that killed at least 39 people on 27 March.
US authorities have turned away thousands of people fleeing corruption, violence and poverty in recent years after their arrival at the border under a public health order invoked by former president Donald Trump’s administration and a so-called “Remain in Mexico” programme that has forced asylum seekers to remain on the other side of the border as their cases are pending in the US.
It is likely that the migrants at the facility seeking asylum in the US were impacted by the Covid-19 public health order, allowing border officials to expel migrants seeking asylum during the pandemic. The US Supreme Court determined that the policy remains in effect until May, when the administration intends to dissolve the public health emergency.
The Title 42 order has been invoked tens of thousands of times since 2020, and immigration advocates have urged the White House to lift the order, which has been tied up in courts, while thousands of vulnerable people fleeing violence, kidnapping, threats and political instability and poverty are stuck in limbo.
The Biden administration is working with Mexico to implement other border restrictions in an effort to discourage people from making illegal crossings into Mexico and then into the US, though the White House also has rolled out a plan for thousands of migrants from Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti and Nicaragua, as long as they apply online in a programme that has been marred by controversy.
Migrants killed or injured in the fire likely were impacted by the Title 42 policy, while others may have been seized by Mexican agents in an operation to remove migrants from road crossings where they clean windows, sell sweets or ask for money, according to La Verdad.
At least 39 migrants were killed after a fire inside an immigration detention centre in Ciudad Juarez on 27 March.
Harrowing images captured the aftermath of the blaze showed rows of of bodies under shimmery silver sheets outside the facility while ambulances, firefighters and vans from the morgue were also on the scene.
Monday’s fire marks the deadliest incident inside a Mexican immigration facility in recent memory, though protests in the nation’s detention centres are not uncommon.
Police and National Guard troops responded to protests inside an immigration centre in Tijuana in October among mostly Venezuelan migrants. The following month, dozens of people protested inside Mexico’s largest detention centre in the southern city of Tapachula near the border with Guatemala. No one died in either incident.
Mexico's National Migration Institute commissioner Francisco Garduno visited victims in hospital on 28 March.
(via REUTERS)
In January, the White House introduced an immigration plan to allow 30,000 migrants per month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to enter the US with legal permission to work in the country for two years.
A group of more than 100 lawmakers from the US House and Senate, meanwhile, have urged the White House to strike down any proposals that would reintroduce family separation policies, as the administration mulls stringent immigration protocol.
“The harm of detaining children is clear,” House members wrote in their letter to the White House on 28 March. “Even short periods of detention can cause psychological trauma and long-term mental health risks for children. We urge you to maintain your commitment to not detaining families and children and not return to a cruel policy of the past.”
In a statement on 28 March, US Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar said he joins “the pain of the relatives of migrants who lost their lives and those injured” in the Ciudad Juarez fire.
“It is a reminder to the governments of the region of the importance of fixing a broken migration system and the risks of irregular migration,” he added.
White House national security council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said that the “the tragic loss of life in Ciudad Juarez is heartbreaking.”
“Our prayers are with those who lost their lives, their loved ones, and those still fighting for their lives. The United States has been in touch with Mexican officials and stands ready to provide any needed support,” she added.
Footage from Officer Rex Engelbert's bodycam shows him opening fire with a rifle several times on Hale before the perpetrator falls to the ground injured.
Image:Audrey Hale. Pic: Metro Nashville Police Department
Police then head towards the 28-year-old just a few metres away as officers shout "move, move", and "watch out, watch out".
The attacker, now on the floor, is hit by several more police gunshots before an officer yells to the suspect "stop moving, stop moving", with the killer appearing to be still alive as one of their arms moves.
An officer screams "throw your hands away from the gun, get your hands away from the gun", while another says "suspect down, suspect down".
Hale's body is then shown lying next to the weapons, including a rifle, the assailant used in the deadly Monday morning attack on the second floor of the Covenant School in Tennessee.
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Image:Footage shows the attacker just before they were shot
Image:The attacker's body is shown lying on the ground after officers opened fire
A second clip shows what happened from a different angle with footage from Officer Michael Collazo's bodycam. He is shown firing his pistol at Hale in the second volley of shots after the suspect was already on the ground.
Minutes earlier, the officers had stormed the building as video showed several going from empty classroom to empty classroom before making their way to the second floor.
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Image:(L-R) Officer Rex Engelbert and Officer Michael Collazo both opened fire on the perpetrator
Multiple gunshots are heard in the footage as officers run down a hallway - past what appears to be a victim - and into a lounge area, where the suspect is seen dropping to the floor after being shot.
Police said the suspect was killed after a confrontation with officers.
The start of the six-minute police video shows Officer Engelbert retrieving a rifle from his car boot before a member of staff directs him to the entrance, telling him that the school is locked down but at least two children are not accounted for.
"Let's go! I need three!" the officer yells as he uses a key to unlock a door and enter the building, where alarms can be heard ringing.
Hale was described by officials as a "lone zealot", who lived in Nashville, and was armed with two assault-type weapons, and a handgun.
Image:Hale identified as transgender
Hale had a manifesto and detailed maps of the school, and entered the building by shooting through its doors before the killings.
The six victims have been named as Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney, all aged nine, substitute teacher Cynthia Peak and school custodian Mike Hill, both 61, and 60-year-old Katherine Koonce, who was the headteacher.
