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The mother of a six-year-old boy who shot his teacher in a Virginia classroom has pleaded guilty to child neglect.

Another charge of reckless storage of a firearm against Deja Taylor has been dropped.

As part of the plea deal prosecutors said they would not seek a sentence longer than six months.

The teacher, Abby Zwerner, was shot in the hand and chest in January but survived after multiple operations.

She claims Richneck Elementary ignored warnings the child had brought a gun to school and is suing for $40m (£32m).

Police in the town of Newport News said the boy had carried the weapon in his backpack.

According to warrants filed in the case, he told a reading specialist who restrained him: “I shot that (expletive) dead,” and “I got my mom’s gun last night.”

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Prosecutor Joshua Jenkins told Tuesday’s plea hearing the boy had said he got the weapon by climbing on a dresser drawer to reach his mother’s handbag.

The court heard he had a defiance disorder and had previously taken her car keys, as well as indications from a child protection report that he had played with a gun at his grandmother’s house.

Teacher Abby Zwerner was shot and wounded by six-year-old boy at a school in Newport News, Virginia, US
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Teacher Abby Zwerner is suing the school

Taylor told police she thought the gun was still in her handbag and secured with a trigger lock – with the key under her mattress, according to search warrants.

However, authorities said they never found a trigger lock during searches.

Taylor also pleaded guilty in June to possessing a firearm while using cannabis, in a separate but related federal case.

Her lawyer, James Ellenson, has argued there are mitigating factors including her miscarriages, anxiety and postpartum depression.

He said he would address these at the sentencing hearing on 27 October and that the boy is now with his great-grandfather.

Taylor told Good Morning America in May that she felt responsible for the shooting and apologised to the teacher.

She said her son had attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and was meant to have a parent with him in class.

However, Taylor said the week of the shooting was the first time he went unaccompanied as he’d been showing signs of improvement.

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More victims expected after Mormon church in Michigan set on fire during mass shooting

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More victims expected after Mormon church in Michigan set on fire during mass shooting

A person has been killed and several others injured after a mass shooting and fire at a Mormon church in Michigan, police have said.

Authorities said at a news conference that the suspect was shot dead by police officers, and that nine others were injured.

Two of those were said to be in critical condition, Grand Blanc Township Chief William Renye told reporters.

Flames and smoke rising from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc. Pic: Julie J, @Malkowski6April / AP
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Flames and smoke rising from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc. Pic: Julie J, @Malkowski6April / AP

He added that the suspect was a 40-year-old man from Burton, who drove his vehicle into the church and began firing rounds at the hundreds of people attending Sunday service.

The suspect used an assault rifle and deliberately started the blaze, Chief Renye said, before adding that officers believe they will find additional victims in the fire.

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Pics: AP
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Pics: AP

The incident took place at around 11am local time at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc, about 50 miles north of Detroit.

In a statement on Sunday morning, Grand Blanc Township Police Department added that the church was “actively on fire” and urged the public to avoid the area.

Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer said in a statement that “my heart is breaking for the Grand Blanc community” after the shooting.

She added: “Violence anywhere, especially in a place of worship, is unacceptable. I am grateful to the first responders who took action quickly.”

Sheriff: ‘Entire church is on fire’

Genesee County sheriff Christopher Swanson said at around 12.20pm (5.20pm in the UK) that the “entire church is on fire”, and confirmed that people who were at the church have been evacuated.

Around 20 minutes later, the police department said the fire had been contained.

The incident took place at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc
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The incident took place at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc

US attorney general Pam Bondi also confirmed the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are responding to the incident.

US President Donald Trump said on Truth Social that “the suspect is dead, but there is still a lot to learn”, before saying the shooting “appears to be yet another targeted attack on Christians in the United States of America”.

He added: “PRAY for the victims, and their families. THIS EPIDEMIC OF VIOLENCE IN OUR COUNTRY MUST END, IMMEDIATELY!”

In the wake of the shooting and fire, the New York Police Department said it would deploy officers to religious institutions across the city “out of an abundance of caution”.

The incident occurred the morning after Russell M Nelson, the oldest-ever president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, died at 101.

Shootings reported in North Carolina, New Orleans, Texas

Meanwhile, authorities responded to a mass shooting at a coastal town in North Carolina late on Saturday, where three people were killed.

At least eight others were injured in that incident, where someone opened fire from a boat into a crowd at a bar.

Another shooting took place at a south Texas casino early on Sunday, with seven people shot and two killed.

A woman was also killed, and three others were injured in Bourbon Street, New Orleans, early on Sunday after a shooting.

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‘I’m not so careful with what I say’ – is Trump feeling more invincible than ever?

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'I'm not so careful with what I say' - is Trump feeling more invincible than ever?

It was one sentence among the many words Donald Trump spoke this week that caught my attention.

Midway through a jaw-dropping news conference where he sensationally claimed to have “found an answer on autism”, he said: “Bobby (Kennedy) wants to be very careful with what he says, but I’m not so careful with what I say.”

The US president has gone from pushing the envelope to completely unfiltered.

Last Sunday, moments after Charlie Kirk‘s widow Erika had publicly forgiven her husband’s killer, Mr Trump told the congregation at his memorial service that he “hates his opponents”.

President Donald Trump embraces Charlie Kirk's widow Erika. Pic: AP
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President Donald Trump embraces Charlie Kirk’s widow Erika. Pic: AP

Twenty-four hours later, he drew fierce rebuke from medical experts by linking the use of Tylenol (paracetamol) during pregnancy to increased risk of autism.

The president treats professional disapproval not as a liability but as evidence of authenticity, fuelling the aura that he is a challenger of conventions.

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‘Paracetamol use in pregnancy perfectly safe’

On Tuesday, he went to the United Nations, where his frustrations over a stalled escalator and teleprompter failure were the prelude to the most combative address.

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“I’m really good at this stuff. Your countries are going to hell,” he told his audience, deriding Europe’s approach to immigration as a “failed experiment of open borders”.

Mr Trump addresses the UN General Assembly in New York. Pic: Reuters
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Mr Trump addresses the UN General Assembly in New York. Pic: Reuters

Then came a U-turn on Ukraine, suggesting the country could win back all the land it has lost to Russia.

Most politicians would be punished for inconsistency, but Mr Trump recasts this as strategic genius – framing himself as dictating the terms.

It is hard to keep track when his expressed hopes for peace in Ukraine and Gaza are peppered with social media posts condemning the return of Jimmy Kimmel to late-night television.

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Trump’s major shift in Ukraine policy

Perhaps most striking of all is his reaction to the indictment of James Comey, the FBI director he fired during his first term.

In theory, this should raise questions about the president’s past conflicts with law enforcement, but he frames it as vindication, proof that his enemies fall while he survives.

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Ex-FBI chief: ‘Costs to standing up to Trump’

Mr Trump has spent much of his political career cultivating an image of a man above the normal consequences of politics, law or diplomacy, but he appears to feel more invincible than ever.

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Trump: ‘Looks like we have a deal’ to end war in Gaza

From funerals to world summits, world peace to public health, he projects the same image: rules are for others.

It is the politics of the untouchable.

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Donald Trump orders deployment of US troops to ‘war-ravaged’ Portland

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Donald Trump orders deployment of US troops to 'war-ravaged' Portland

Donald Trump has ordered the deployment of US troops to “war-ravaged Portland” in the state of Oregon, authorising the use of “full force” if needed.

The US president said he was directing US defence secretary Pete Hegseth to make the move in order to protect the city “and any of our ICE facilities under siege from attack by Antifa and other domestic terrorists”.

Mr Trump did not specify whether he would send in National Guard troops or the US military.

The move comes after a gunman opened fire on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office in Dallas on Wednesday, wounding two detainees and killing another.

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Fatal shooting at ICE facility in Dallas

The ICE facility in Portland has been targeted by protesters since June, sometimes leading to violent clashes.

On Friday, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said demonstrators had “repeatedly attacked and laid siege to an ICE processing centre” there, adding that several arrests were made.

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“Rose City Antifa, a recently designated domestic terrorist organization, illegally doxed ICE officers. They published their home address online and on public flyers. Individuals associated with Antifa also sent death threats to DHS personnel,” DHS wrote on X.

Speaking in the Oval Office on Thursday, Mr Trump said “anarchy” was taking place in Portland.

He said: “You go out to Portland, people die out there. Many people have died over the years in Portland. Portland is, I don’t know how anybody lives there. It’s amazing, but it’s, it’s anarchy out there. That’s what they want. They want anarchy.”

In separate comments, Mr Trump said people were “out of control” in Portland and pledged to “stop that very soon”.

People protest against the Trump's immigration policies in Portland. Pic: Reuters
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People protest against the Trump’s immigration policies in Portland. Pic: Reuters

ICE agents charge towards protesters in Portland. Pic: Reuters
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ICE agents charge towards protesters in Portland. Pic: Reuters

After Mr Trump’s announcement, Oregon’s Democratic governor Tina Kotek said she was reaching out to the White House for more information.

“We have been provided no information on the reason or purpose of any military mission. There is no national security threat in Portland. Our communities are safe and calm,” she said.

Read more: Trump threatens to move World Cup games from ‘unsafe’ host cities

Portland’s mayor Keith Wilson said in a statement that the “number of necessary troops is zero, in Portland and any other American city”.

But Republicans supported the move. US labour secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, who previously served as a Republican house representative for an Oregon district, said she had seen how “lawlessness” had turned Portland into a “crime-ridden war zone”.

In a post on X, she thanked Mr Trump “for taking action to keep our ICE facilities protected and Make America Great Again”.

Trump has sent military troops to the Democratic-controlled cities of Los Angeles and Washington DC so far in his second presidency. He has also discussed doing the same in Memphis and New Orleans, which are also Democratic strongholds.

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