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A man who was in contact with a female student who opened fire at a private religious school in Wisconsin, killing two people before apparently taking her own life, has been arrested in the US.

A 20-year-old California man told the FBI he had been messaging Natalie Rupnow, 15, about attacking a government building with a gun and explosives, according to a restraining order issued under the state’s gun red flag law.

Under the order, a judge directed the man to give up his guns and ammunition within 48 hours because he posed an immediate danger to himself and others.

It was issued on Tuesday, the day after Rupnow opened fire at the Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin, killing a student and teacher and injuring six others.

Two of the wounded are still in a critical condition.

The court documents do not name the man from California or say what building he targeted, when he planned to launch his attack, or what he and Rupnow discussed.

Police tape remained after a shooting Monday at Abundant Life Christian School on Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024 in Madison, Wis. (AP photo/Mark Vancleave)
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Two people were killed in the attack. Pic: AP

Rubi Patricia Vergara, 14, from Madison, was identified in an obituary published on Wednesday as the student killed in Monday’s attack.

Vergara was “an avid reader, loved art, singing and playing keyboard in the family worship band,” the obituary said.

The teacher who died was 42-year-old Erin Michelle West, the Dane County medical examiner said on Wednesday evening.

The school’s communication director Barbara Wiers said Vergara had been there since pre-school, while West worked there as a substitute teacher for three years before becoming an on-site substitute teacher.

A supporter holds a candle during a candlelight vigil Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024, outside the Wisconsin Capitol in Madison, Wis., following a shooting at the Abundant Life Christian School on Monday, Dec. 16. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
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A candlelight vigil for the victims was held in Madison on Tuesday. Pic: AP

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‘I’m very aware the world is like this’

Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes said officers “may never know what she [Rupnow] was thinking that day”.

He added: “I do not know if she planned it that day or if she planned it a week prior. To me, bringing a gun to school to hurt people is planning. And so we don’t know what the premeditation is.”

Rupnow had two handguns, Chief Barnes said, but could not say how she obtained them and he declined to say who bought them because of the ongoing investigation.

Online court records show no criminal cases against her divorced parents, Jeffrey and Mellissa Rupnow.

Divorce records indicate that Natalie, who mostly lived with her father, was in therapy in 2022, but don’t say why.

The school shooting was the latest among dozens across the US in recent years, including especially deadly ones in Newtown, Connecticut, Parkland, Florida, and Uvalde, Texas.

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But the Wisconsin shooting stands out because school shootings by teenage females have been extremely rare, with males in their teens and 20s carrying out the majority of them, David Riedman, founder of the K-12 School Shooting Database, said.

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Recording captures audio of Titanic submersible implosion

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Recording captures audio of Titanic submersible implosion

A recording has captured the implosion of the Titan submersible which went missing on its voyage to the wreck of the Titanic.

A passive acoustic recorder located around 900 miles from the implosion site picked up the sound, US Coast Guard officials said in a statement.

The short recording includes a loud noise that sounds like a muffled clap, before going silent for a few seconds.

The coastguard said the audio clip “records the suspected acoustic signature of the Titan submersible implosion” on 18 June 2023.

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Titan sub hull wreckage video released

The implosion killed all five people on board – Titan operator Stockton Rush, who founded Oceangate, the company that owned the submersible; two members of a prominent Pakistani family, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman; British adventurer Hamish Harding; and Titanic expert and the sub’s pilot Paul-Henri Nargeolet.

The sub vanished on its way to visit the wreck of the Titanic in the North Atlantic Ocean, setting off a five-day search that ended when authorities said the vessel had been destroyed with no survivors.

The wreckage was eventually found on the ocean floor around 300m from the Titanic, according to officials.

After the disaster concerns were raised because of the Titan’s unconventional design and Rush’s refusal to submit to independent safety checks.

OceanGate suspended operations in July 2023.

Read more:
What happened to the Titan?
The stories of those on the Titan submersible

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Titan ‘malfunctioned’ days before fatal dive

A coastguard panel investigating the disaster heard two weeks of testimony last September, which saw a former OceanGate scientific director say the Titan malfunctioned during a dive just a few days before it imploded.

The coastguard is expected to release more information about the implosion in the future.

A spokesperson said the investigation is still ongoing and a final report will be released after it is completed.

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Glee actress Naya Rivera’s final words before drowning revealed

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Glee actress Naya Rivera's final words before drowning revealed

Naya Rivera’s ex-boyfriend Ryan Dorsey has – for the first time – shared details from the day she died.

Speaking to People, the 41-year-old actor said that “the last thing she said was his [her son’s] name, and then she went under, and he didn’t see her anymore”.

The Glee actress, 33, died after drowning in a California lake in July 2020 – when she was swimming with her young son Josey.

Josey, who was four at the time, told police his mother had boosted him on to the deck – after their boat had drifted away.

Local police said they believe that after saving her son, Rivera did not have enough energy to save herself.

Dorsey says his son, now nine, told him he was worried about getting into the water – and that Rivera had said, “don’t be silly!”.

The boat that Naya Rivera was using when she went missing is seen on Lake Piru in California. Pic: Reuters /Mario Anzuoni
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The boat that Naya Rivera was using when she went missing. Pic: Reuters /Mario Anzuoni


“Something he’s said over and over is that he was trying to find a life raft, and there was a rope, but there was a big spider on the rope, and he was too scared to throw it,” Dorsey told People.

“I keep reassuring him, buddy, that rope wasn’t going to be long enough.”

Dorsey added: “It just rocks my world that he had to witness her last moments.”

Naya Rivera is best-known for starring in Glee. Pic: Frank Micelotta/Invision/AP
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Naya Rivera is best-known for starring in Glee. Pic: Frank Micelotta/Invision/AP


The actor says he found out that Rivera was first missing after receiving a call from her stepfather – while he was in a supermarket buying food for a friend’s barbeque.

“I collapsed into a pallet of drinks,” Dorsey said. “I feared the worst.”

Ryan Dorsey and Naya Rivera. Pic: Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP
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Ryan Dorsey and Naya Rivera. Pic: Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP

Dorsey said he immediately got into his car and drove 145 miles to Lake Piru, where Rivera and their son had been swimming.

“I drove 100-and-­something the whole way with my four-way hazards on, chain-smoking cigarettes – and I don’t even smoke, really – and just crying,” he says. “I just wanted to get to Josey.

“If we’d have lost both Naya and Josey, I don’t know how I would continue on with my life.”

He added: “When it happened, I just found myself shaking my head, like, I can’t believe she’s gone. It’s still so surreal every day.”

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Dorsey says the holiday period is particularly tough for his nine-year-old son.

He said: “We made this book of memories for Josey that sits by his bed, and during the holidays he was crying looking at it.

“You can only give him a hug and tell him, ‘I know, life is not fair. Bad things happen and there’s no reason for it, and you just have to do your best to be a good person.'”

In 2022, a lawsuit filed by Rivera’s family against Ventura County, California, over her drowning was privately settled.

Naya Rivera on the red carpet. Pic: Reuters
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Naya Rivera on the red carpet. Pic: Reuters

The lawsuit for wrongful death and negligent infliction of emotional distress was filed on behalf of her son.

The family also sued the United Water Conservation District and Parks and Recreation Management, accusing them of failing to warn visitors of the danger of boating and swimming in the lake, and saying Rivera’s death was “utterly preventable”.

They said the rented pontoon boat was not equipped with flotation or lifesaving devices, a ladder, rope, anchor, or any equipment designed to keep swimmers from being separated from their boat.

However, Ventura County officials said the death wasn’t their fault, and said the actress had declined to wear a life jacket. They said the rental agent had put the life jacket in the boat nevertheless.

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Elon Musk’s X to pay Trump $10m compensation

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Elon Musk's X to pay Trump m compensation

Elon Musk’s X has agreed to pay Donald Trump about $10m (£8m) after suspending his accounts following the 2021 US Capitol riot by his supporters, according to reports.

The payment follows a $25m (£20m) deal the US president’s lawyers struck with Meta Platforms – the owner of Facebook and Instagram – last month.

Mr Trump sued the social media platforms, along with Google’s owner Alphabet Inc, as well as their chief executives, in San Francisco over what he claimed was unlawful silencing of conservative opinions, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

Twitter had cited the risk of Mr Trump inciting further violence related to his effort to remain in the White House following his loss to former President Joe Biden in the 2020 election as the reason for suspending his account.

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Is Elon Musk short on credibility?

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Mr Musk, who bought Twitter in 2022 and renamed it X, has become a fierce supporter of Mr Trump, giving $250m (£202m) to his 2024 election campaign.

The tech billionaire has been chosen by the president to head the new US Department of Government Efficiency – shortened to DOGE – whose purpose is to radically shrink federal bureaucracy.

Mr Trump’s legal team considered dropping the case given the platform’s change of ownership and how close the two men have become, before agreeing to the settlement, the Journal reported – quoting people familiar with the matter.

Lawyers are expected to pursue a similar agreement with Alphabet, which banned Mr Trump from YouTube after the Capitol riot.

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Musk defends DOGE reforms

Read more from Sky News:
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Glee star’s final words
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Neither the X, nor its CEO at the time of Mr Trump’s suspension, Jack Dorsey, as well as Alphabet and the White House have responded to requests for comment.

Mr Trump has pardoned about 1,500 supporters charged over the violence on 6 January 2021, which saw people storm the Capitol building in Washington to try to stop Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory being signed off.

Sky News has contacted X for comment.

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