Former Uvalde police chief indicted over slow response to Robb Elementary shooting
By: Jim Vertuno
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The former Uvalde schools police chief was indicted over his role in the slow police response to the 2022 massacre at a Texas elementary school that left 19 children and two teachers dead, the local sheriff said Thursday.
Pete Arredondo was indicted by a grand jury on 10 counts of felony child endangerment/abandonment and briefly booked into the county jail before he was released on bond, Uvalde Sheriff Ruben Nolasco told The Associated Press in a text message Thursday night.
The Uvalde Leader-News and the San Antonio Express-News reported that former school officer Adrian Gonzales also was indicted on multiple similar charges. The Uvalde Leader-News reported that District Attorney Christina Mitchell confirmed the indictment.
Mitchell did not return phone and email messages from The Associated Press seeking comment. Several family members of victims of the shooting did not respond to phone messages seeking comment.
The indictments make Arredondo, who was the on-site commander during the attack, and Gonzales the first officers to face criminal charges in one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history. A scathing report by Texas lawmakers that examined the police response described Gonzales as one of the first officers to enter the building after the shooting began.
The indictments were kept under seal until the men were in custody. It was unclear when Arredondo’s indictment would be publicly released.
Russia warns of unspecified response after U.S. drones fly over Black Sea
(AP) – Russia’s defence minister ordered officials to prepare a “response” to U.S. drone flights over the Black Sea, the ministry said Friday, in an apparent warning that Moscow may take forceful action to ward off the American reconnaissance aircraft.
The Russian Defence Ministry noted a recent “increased intensity” of U.S. drones over the Black Sea, saying they “conduct intelligence and targeting for precision weapons supplied to the Ukrainian military by Western countries for strikes on Russian facilities.”
“It shows an increased involvement of the U.S. and other NATO countries in the conflict in Ukraine on the side of the Kyiv regime,” the ministry said in a statement.
It noted that “such flights significantly increase the probability of incidents involving Russian military aircraft, which increases the risk of direct confrontation between the alliance and the Russian Federation.”
“NATO members will bear responsibility for that,” it added.
The ministry said that Defence Minister Andrei Belousov has directed the General Staff to “make proposals on measures of operative response to provocations.”
Missiles land near ship in Red Sea; likely from Yemen’s Houthi rebels
By: Jon Gambrell
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A ship traveling through the Red Sea came under repeated missile fire Friday in an attack likely launched by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, authorities said, the latest targeting the crucial maritime route.
Five missiles landed near the vessel as it traveled off the coast of the rebel-held port city of Hodeida in Yemen, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKTMO) centre said.
The missiles landed near the vessel, but caused no damage, the UKTMO added.
The Houthis did not immediately claim the attack. However, it can take them hours or even days before they acknowledge an assault.
The rebels have targeted more than 60 vessels by firing missiles and drones in their campaign that has killed a total of four sailors. They seized one vessel and sank two since November. A U.S.-led airstrike campaign has targeted the Houthis since January, with a series of strikes on May 30 killing at least 16 people and wounding 42 others, the rebels say.
The Houthis maintain that their attacks target ships linked to Israel, the United States or Britain. However, many of the ships attacked have little or no connection to the Israel-Hamas war — including some bound for Iran.
Severe weather wreaks havoc across the U.S.
By: Margery A. Beck And Hannah Fingerhut
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Severe weather over days has caused havoc and destruction across the U.S. That includes torrential rains and flooding in the Upper Midwest and powerful storms in the Northeast that left at least two people dead from falling trees.
The deadly storms that raked parts of the Northeast late Wednesday into early Thursday spun off tornadoes and initially left some 250,000 customers in the region without power.
The National Weather Service confirmed that a tornado moved through parts of Rhode Island and Massachusetts on Wednesday evening, and in western Pennsylvania, the storms are believed to have spun off at least three tornadoes. High winds of up to 70 mph (113 kph) brought down power lines and trees and damaged some homes and other structures in the area. No injuries were reported.
The storms came on the heels of widespread flooding in parts of the Midwest after days of torrential rains soaked the area. A 52-year-old man drowned in his Iowa basement after the foundation collapsed and debris pinned him down, the Des Moines Register reported Thursday. Flooding is attributed to at least two other deaths — one in Iowa and one in South Dakota — caused by driving near flooded areas.
Much of the country has also been hit with a scorching heat wave as scientists have sounded the alarm that climate change is likely to bring more weather extremes.
Philippine troops kill 10 communist rebels as decades-long insurgency continues
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine troops killed at least 10 suspected communist guerrillas in a clash in a remote northern area in the latest blow to a decades-old insurgency that has weakened considerably, with only about a thousand guerrillas remaining, military and security officials said Friday.
Army troops caught up with about 20 New People’s Army guerrillas who were withdrawing from an earlier clash with government forces last week, sparking a firefight Wednesday that killed 10 rebels, including three commanders, near a village in Pantabangan town in Nueva Ecija province, the army said.
Thirteen rifles and a pistol were recovered from the area of the fighting, which was near a key dam, it said. Troops were pursuing about 10 other guerrillas who withdrew from the remote area, regional army spokesperson Maj. Jimson Masangkay said by telephone.
Brig. Gen. Norwin Joseph Pasamonte, an army infantry brigade commander, commended the troops but expressed sadness over the rebel deaths. “The government did not fail in appealing to them to surrender and return to normal life,” Pasamonte said in a statement, adding that the deaths should help convince the remaining guerrillas to give up.
Ultra-Orthodox Jews block highway to protest Israel’s new mandatory military service
By: Ami Bentov
BNEI BRAK, Israel (AP) — Hundreds of ultra-Orthodox Jewish men blocked a major highway in central Israel for two hours on Thursday to protest a recent Supreme Court decision ordering young religious men to enlist for military service.
Military service is compulsory for most Jewish men and women in Israel. But politically powerful ultra-Orthodox parties have won draft exemptions for their followers that allow them instead to study in religious seminaries.
This long-standing arrangement has bred widespread resentment among the broader public — a sentiment that has grown stronger during the eight-month war against Hamas in Gaza. Over 600 soldiers have been killed, and tens of thousands of reservists have been activated, straining careers, businesses and family lives.
Protesters sat on the highway and lay on the ground as police lifted them up and dragged them away. Officers mounted on horseback charged into the crowd. Many demonstrators held signs and chanted “To prison! Not to the army!”
The ultra-Orthodox see their full-time religious study as their part in protecting the state. Many fear that greater contact with secular society through the military will distance adherents from strict observance of the faith.
Slovak train and bus collision that killed 7 was likely caused by human error, minister says
BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AP) — A collision between a EuroCity train with a bus in southern Slovakia that left seven people dead was likely caused by human error, the Slovak transport minister said on Friday.
Some 200 people were aboard the train traveling from the Czech capital of Prague crossing through Slovakia on its way to the Hungarian capital of Budapest when the accident took place shortly Thursday after 5 p.m. (1500 GMT) at a crossing near the town of Nove Zamky.
The train engine caught fire after the crash while the bus was badly damaged and broke into two parts.
All of the deaths were aboard the bus.
The minister, Jozef Ráž, said that heavy rains hit the area on Wednesday, the day before the crash, forcing the closure of the railroad track to all traffic.
Preliminary results from the investigation showed no technical or systemic errors had occurred, Ráž said.
“It was likely an individual human error which caused the train to appear on a track where it wasn’t supposed to be,” he said.
Five injured people from the bus were transported to hospitals in nearby towns and cities. The local hospital was closed Thursday because of flooding from the heavy rain overnight.
Officials evacuate area after train derails in suburban Chicago
By: Todd Richmond
ILLINOIS (AP) – Emergency officials ordered what turned out to be a relatively brief evacuation after a freight train derailed in suburban Chicago on Thursday.
The Canadian National Railway train derailed in the village of Matteson around 10:30 a.m. The company issued a statement about 1:30 p.m. saying that about 25 cars derailed. There were no reports of fires or injuries, although one car containing “residue liquified petroleum gas” leaked, the company said.
Steve DeJong, a firefighter with a statewide hazardous material response team, said during an afternoon news conference that the substance is commonly known as propane — “just like you’d use in your grill” — and the train was carrying only residual amounts.
Propane is flammable, and emergency responders didn’t know how much of it they were dealing with they arrived at the derailment so they ordered a two-block radius evacuated as a precaution, Matteson Mayor Sheila Chalmers-Currin told reporters. The evacuation order applied to up to 300 people, she said.
DeJong said the leak was small and firefighters were able to contain it. The propane that did escape evaporated, dispersing so widely that it didn’t register on detectors, he said.
“We are now telling our residents there is no danger to any of them at this time and they can return home,” Chalmers-Currin said. “There is no danger. There is nothing toxic that will harm anyone here.”
