Tuesday morning news: December 17, 2024

Christian school shooting » Police are still investigating a deadly school shooting in Wisconsin on Monday.

Authorities say a teenager opened fire with a handgun at a Christian school, killing a teacher and another teenager.

Madison Police Department Chief Shon Barnes told reporters:

BARNES: We know that the suspect shooter was a teenage student who attended the school. At this time, we're not releasing the age or gender of the student or any other identifying remarks about the student.

Authorities say the shooter also died and wounded six others.

The shots rang out Monday around 11am at the Abundant Life Christian School, a pre-K-12 school of about 400 students.

Barbara Wiers is Elementary Director at the school.

WIERS:  In spite of tragedy, God is working and we believe that God is good in everything and that he turns beauty for ashes. And so I had a number of families who mentioned that to me, that this wasn't a surprise to God and that he's going to do something mighty with it.

Chief Barnes said the motive for the shooting was not immediately known.

Israel latest » Israel's defense minister says negotiators are closer to a Gaza ceasefire now than they've been in more than a year.

KATZ: [Speaking Hebrew]

Israel Katz says Israel's top priority in peace talks is securing the freedom of the remaining hostages still held by Hamas. He says Hamas realizes it has to be more flexible ... and that's creating an opportunity.

Meanwhile, President-elect Donald Trump says he's spoken by phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about conflicts in the region.

TRUMP: We had a really good conversation, and I think we're going to be in a good place in the Middle East.

Trump reiterated a previous threat he made to Hamas...that the terror group should expect retribution if the hostages aren't released by the time he takes office next month.

Pressed by a reporter about what that means, Trump replied:

TRUMP: Well, they're going to have to determine what that means. But it means it won't be pleasant. [REPORTERS YELL] It's not. It's not going to be pleasant.

Trump did not say when he spoke to Netanyahu.

Drones » The White House says the FBI has been investigating mysterious apparent drone flights over New Jersey and other states in recent weeks. And National Security Council spokesman John Kirby says …

KIRBY:  We have not identified anything anomalous or any national security or public safety risk over the civilian airspace in New Jersey or other states in the Northeast.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy also said Monday that investigations have turned up little to no evidence of anything nefarious or threatening. The Democratic governor says, in recent days, high-tech drone-detecting devices have been scanning the skies in this state.

MURPHY:  We've got the most sophisticated systems at long last. We've got experts who run those systems. And I have confidence, um, that we will get the facts here.

But many residents are still on edge about the unexplained flights … and demands for answers are growing louder. We’ll have much more on that later in the program.

Drug ingredients legislation » The Senate panel that helps oversee medications in America is weighing a bipartisan bill aimed at safeguarding medicines against shortages … and overreliance on foreign drug makers.

Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine:  

KAINE: When pharmacies and pharmaceutical companies see an uptick in demand of a particular drug, we're asking them to share that with the FDA and others so that we can see shortages before they develop.

And Republican Sen. Tom Cotton said the bill would especially help ensure that the U.S. is not reliant on adversaries for important medications.

COTTON:  Our legislation would direct the government to take stock of where we're obtaining these prescription drugs, or in some cases over the counter drugs, or their precursor ingredients to make sure that we don't have adversarial nations like China that control them that could end up cutting them off in a moment of national crisis.

The effort comes amid concerns about adequate medical supplies during the pandemic and hurricanes Milton and Helene.

Judge rejects Trump’s bid to dismiss NY conviction » A judge has rebuffed one of President-elect Donald Trump’s arguments for throwing out his New York business fraud conviction. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin reports.

KRISTEN FLAVIN: Manhattan Judge Juan Merchan's decision eliminates one potential off-ramp from the case, though others have yet to be decided.

The judge ruled on an argument by Trump’s lawyers that the conviction should be tossed out based on the U.S. Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling this summer.

Prosecutors have said there should be some accommodation for his upcoming presidency, but they insist the conviction should stand. A jury convicted Trump in May of falsifying business records.

It was an unusual case in which Trump was charged with felonies for infractions nearly always prosecuted as misdemeanors.

For WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

ABC Trump settlement » Meantime, ABC News is set to help fund President-elect Donald Trump's presidential library to the tune of $15 million dollars.

The network agreed to do just that to settle a lawsuit. Trump sued ABC and anchor George Stephanopoulos in March after the host wrongly stated that the former president had been found civilly liable for raping author E. Jean Carroll.

A jury in 2023 found Trump liable for sexual assault but not rape.

In the civil case, the allegations against Trump did not have to be proven as they would in a criminal trial. The New York jury only had to believe the accusations were more likely than not to be true.

Trump has vehemently denied any wrongdoing.

I'm Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: more on the drone sightings along the eastern seaboard. Plus, religious freedom advocates express concern over what’s next for Christians in Syria.

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