WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden will visit Rolling Fork, Mississippi, on Friday after the town was devastated by a tornado last week that killed 26 people, the White House said.

(Reporting by Eric Beech; editing by Costas Pitas)

By Jonathan Allen and Brendan O’Brien

NASHVILLE (Reuters) -First lady Jill Biden visited Nashville on Wednesday to join a memorial vigil for the three children and three adults shot to death this week at a Christian day school, including two educators who were close friends of the Tennessee governor’s wife.

The outdoor ceremony was scheduled to start about 90 minutes before sunset, at a public park in the heart of Nashville, the state capital and Tennessee’s largest city, several miles from the scene of Monday’s massacre.

Three 9-year-old students of the Covenant School in the city’s Green Hills neighborhood were fatally shot along with custodian Mike Hill, 61, the school’s headmaster, Katherine Koonce, 60, and substitute teacher Cynthia Peak, 61.

The slain children were identified as Evelyn Dieckhaus, William Kinney and Hallie Scruggs, whose father is head pastor of Covenant Presbyterian Church, where the school is housed.

The assailant, a former Covenant School student identified as Audrey Elizabeth Hale, 28, was shot to death by police minutes after the attack on the school had begun. A motive for the killings remains undetermined.

Mourners have since left a collection of flowers, balloons and stuffed teddy bears at the school’s gate. Six white crosses were placed nearby, each adorned with a blue heart, a victim’s name and a Bible verse: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”

‘THERE IS PAIN’

Monday’s shooting, the latest of dozens in U.S. schools this year alone, has touched a particularly raw nerve, in part because three victims were so young and because it scorched Nashville’s tight-knit Christian community.

“Many Tennesseans are feeling the exact same way: The emptiness, the lack of understanding, the desperate desire for answers, the desperate need for hope,” said Tennessee Governor Bill Lee in a video posted on his Twitter feed.

Lee said both Koonce and Peak had at one time taught at the same school as his wife, Maria, and that the three remained close friends for decades. Lee said Peak and his wife had planned to dine together on Monday.

“I understand there is pain. I understand the desperation to have answers, to place blame, to argue about a solution that could prevent this horrible tragedy,” he said. “This is not a time for hate or rage.”

Some in extreme right-wing circles have seized on the case to vilify transgender people, after police said the shooter identified as transgender. It has since emerged that Hale was going by the name Aiden and using male pronouns on social media in recent months.

The shootings only heightened a sense of anxiety in the LGBTQ community amid moves by Republican politicians in numerous states to outlaw gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth, including a ban enacted recently in Tennessee.

Jill Biden arrived in Nashville on Wednesday afternoon to attend the vigil, which was to be led by Mayor John Cooper, a number of city officials and clergy. Musicians Sheryl Crow, Margo Price and Ketch Secor were expected to perform.

SMALL ARSENAL AT HOME

Metropolitan Nashville Police Chief John Drake said investigators seeking clues to what precipitated the killings were examining maps and writings in a 60-page notebook found at Hale’s home. The writings suggested plans to carry out shootings at other locations, but authorities have yet to pinpoint a motive, Drake said.

The shooter was armed at the time of the attack with two assault-style weapons and a 9mm handgun, which police later found were among seven firearms that Hale had legally purchased in recent years.

While Hale targeted the school – which serves about 200 students from pre-kindergarten to sixth grade – the individual victims were slain at random, police have said.

In a CNN interview on Wednesday, Drake said it remained unclear what role, if any, Hale’s gender identity, religious beliefs or educational background played in the attack, stressing that the investigation was in its early stages. He had said days ago that investigators believed Hale harbored some resentment at having attended Covenant as a child.

“There may have been some resentment. But we haven’t been able to confirm it,” Drake said on Wednesday. “As of right now, we don’t have any indication there was any problems at the school or home.”

Investigators are also looking at the mental health of the shooter, who was under a doctor’s care for an emotional disorder, Drake said, noting that law enforcement was never contacted and she was never committed to an institution.

As with most high-profile mass shootings, the latest attack has added fuel to a long-running national debate over gun ownership rights and regulations.

Tennessee does not require a permit to possess a firearm, regardless of whether it is concealed or openly carried.

(Reporting by Jonathan Allen in Nashville and Brendan O’Brien in Chicago; Additional reporting by Rich McKay in AtlantaWriting and additional reporting by Steve Gorman in Los AngelesEditing by Mark Porter and Matthew Lewis)

By Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Senate easily passed legislation on Wednesday to repeal two decades-old authorizations for past wars in Iraq, as Congress pushes to reassert its role in deciding whether to send troops into combat 20 years after the last invasion.

The Democratic-led Senate voted 66-30 in favor of legislation to repeal the 1991 and 2002 Authorizations for the Use of Military Force, or AUMFs, a bipartisan majority well above the 51 votes needed to pass the measure that would formally end the Gulf and Iraq wars.

To become law, the repeal of the two Iraq AUMFs must still pass the Republican-led House of Representatives, where Speaker Kevin McCarthy signaled support but told a news conference last week the matter should first be reviewed by a House committee, not go straight to a floor vote.

President Joe Biden has said he will sign the measure if it passes both the Senate and House and reaches his desk.

Twenty years after the March 2003 U.S. invasion that toppled Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, the vote was a historic, if symbolic, step away from a war that killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and thousands of Americans, complicated policy in the Middle East and bitterly divided U.S. politics.

Supporters of repeal also said it recognized that Iraq is no longer an adversary but has become a U.S. security partner.

The resolution also would repeal the Gulf War AUMF approved in 1991 after Saddam’s Iraq invaded Kuwait.

The Iraq AUMFs have been labeled “zombie” authorizations because they never expire but their original purpose no longer applies.

‘CONSTITUTIONAL ROLE’

It was also the latest effort by U.S. lawmakers to reclaim congressional authority over whether troops should be sent into combat, which backers of the repeal said had been improperly ceded to the White House as the Senate and the House passed and then failed to repeal open-ended war authorizations.

“This vote shows that Congress is prepared to call back our constitutional role in deciding how and when a nation goes to war, and also when it should end wars,” said Senator Bob Menendez, Democratic chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, before the vote.

“It also protects against future administrations abusing authorizations that outlive their mandate but still remain on the books,” Menendez said.

Under the U.S. constitution, Congress, not the president, has the right to declare war.

Lawmakers have been divided over whether to let the AUMFs stand, leaving it to military commanders to decide how best to fight U.S. enemies. As a result, no AUMF repeals have passed since 1971, although some have passed committees or one chamber of Congress.

In 1971, Congress voted to repeal the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which had provided authority for the Vietnam War.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin told a House hearing that it was up to Congress to decide whether to repeal the Iraq AUMFs, but that the military could still “do what we need to do” based on a separate AUMF passed in after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks authorizing military action against extremists.

McConnell, who is out of Washington recovering from a fall, issued a statement opposing the repeal.

“Our terrorist enemies aren’t sunsetting their war against us. And when we deploy our servicemembers in harm’s way, we need to supply them with all the support and legal authorities that we can,” he said, citing recent attacks such as one last week in Syria that killed one American and wounded six others.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle with additional reporting by Richard Cowan; editing by Mark Heinrich and Cynthia Osterman)

By Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Senate easily passed legislation on Wednesday to repeal two decades-old authorizations for past wars in Iraq, as Congress pushes to reassert its role in deciding whether to send troops into combat 20 years after the last invasion.

The Democratic-led Senate voted 66-30 in favor of legislation to repeal the 1991 and 2002 Authorizations for the Use of Military Force, or AUMFs, a bipartisan majority well above the 51 votes needed to pass the measure that would formally end the Gulf and Iraq wars.

To become law, the repeal of the two Iraq AUMFs must still pass the Republican-led House of Representatives, where Speaker Kevin McCarthy signaled support but told a news conference last week the matter should first be reviewed by a House committee, not go straight to a floor vote.

President Joe Biden has said he will sign the measure if it passes both the Senate and House and reaches his desk.

Twenty years after the March 2003 U.S. invasion that toppled Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, the vote was a historic, if symbolic, step away from a war that killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and thousands of Americans, complicated policy in the Middle East and bitterly divided U.S. politics.

Supporters of repeal also said it recognized that Iraq is no longer an adversary but has become a U.S. security partner.

The resolution also would repeal the Gulf War AUMF approved in 1991 after Saddam’s Iraq invaded Kuwait.

The Iraq AUMFs have been labeled “zombie” authorizations because they never expire but their original purpose no longer applies.

‘CONSTITUTIONAL ROLE’

It was also the latest effort by U.S. lawmakers to reclaim congressional authority over whether troops should be sent into combat, which backers of the repeal said had been improperly ceded to the White House as the Senate and the House passed and then failed to repeal open-ended war authorizations.

“This vote shows that Congress is prepared to call back our constitutional role in deciding how and when a nation goes to war, and also when it should end wars,” said Senator Bob Menendez, Democratic chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, before the vote.

“It also protects against future administrations abusing authorizations that outlive their mandate but still remain on the books,” Menendez said.

Under the U.S. constitution, Congress, not the president, has the right to declare war.

Lawmakers have been divided over whether to let the AUMFs stand, leaving it to military commanders to decide how best to fight U.S. enemies. As a result, no AUMF repeals have passed since 1971, although some have passed committees or one chamber of Congress.

In 1971, Congress voted to repeal the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which had provided authority for the Vietnam War.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin told a House hearing that it was up to Congress to decide whether to repeal the Iraq AUMFs, but that the military could still “do what we need to do” based on a separate AUMF passed in after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks authorizing military action against extremists.

McConnell, who is out of Washington recovering from a fall, issued a statement opposing the repeal.

“Our terrorist enemies aren’t sunsetting their war against us. And when we deploy our servicemembers in harm’s way, we need to supply them with all the support and legal authorities that we can,” he said, citing recent attacks such as one last week in Syria that killed one American and wounded six others.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle with additional reporting by Richard Cowan; editing by Mark Heinrich and Cynthia Osterman)

By Nandita Bose and Simon Lewis

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden announced new funding to bolster democracies around the world at a meeting on Wednesday, although dozens of countries were holding back on a summit declaration laying out commitments to democratic principles.

Amid criticism his administration has made little progress in advancing human rights and democracy in its foreign policy, Biden announced a planned $690 million in funding to help fight corruption, support free and fair elections and advance technologies that support democratic governments.

“We’re turning the tide here. As we often say, we’re at an inflection point in history here, when the decisions we make today are going to affect the course of our world for the next several decades for certain,” Biden said addressing the largely virtual Summit for Democracy, the second such event organized by the White House.

Although leaders of 120 nations were invited, a summit declaration — which included backing to basic tenets of democracy like free and fair elections and called out Russia for its invasion of Ukraine — was initially endorsed by only 73 countries.

Twelve of those dissociated themselves from parts of the text, including India, Israel and the Philippines, which all opted out of a part backing accountability for human rights abusers and acknowledging the importance of the International Criminal Court.

“To meet the rising challenges to democracy worldwide, we commit to strengthen democratic institutions and processes and build resilience,” the declaration said.

A senior administration official said the declaration remained open and additional countries could still endorse it.

“As is the case with any joint statement, negotiations can sometimes be intense. In this case, we were dealing with an extraordinarily large number of governments and some of the conversations went pretty far down to the wire,” said the official, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity.

Biden announced over $400 million for similar programs in 2021 when he last held such an event.

Rights advocates say there is little evidence the countries joining the summit have made progress on improving their democracies, and that there is no formal mechanism to hold participants to the modest commitments made at an earlier meeting.

More recently, a move by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government to weaken the power of Israel’s judiciary; Mexico’s move to gut its election oversight body; and India’s decision to disqualify a top opposition political leader have all cast a pall over Biden’s repeated claims that democracies have become stronger.

Netanyahu, one of 85 world leaders who addressed the summit on Wednesday, voiced confidence that a political compromise could be reached on the judicial reforms, which he argued could be reconciled with civil liberties even as his opponents have accused him of seeking to curb judicial independence.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy pleaded for more weapons to help defeat Russia. Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has killed tens of thousands and reduced cities to rubble.

“The enemies of democracy must lose,” Zelenskiy said.

(Reporting by Nandita Bose, Simon Lewis and Daphne Psaledakis in Washington; Additional writing by Susan Heavey; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Alistair Bell)

By Jody Godoy

(Reuters) – U.S. criminal charges should be dropped against two former Societe Generale SA bankers for allegedly trying to rig the London interbank offered rate, prosecutors told a New York court on Wednesday.

Muriel Bescond, a former head of Societe Generale SA’s Treasury desk in Paris, and her boss Danielle Sindzingre, who was SocGen’s global head of treasury, were charged in 2017 with preparing inaccurate Libor submissions in 2010 and 2011.

U.S. Attorney Breon Peace did not give reasons in the motion asking a judge in New York state’s Long Island to dismiss the case.

Bescond’s attorney Laurence Shtasel said “she looks forward to being relieved of this burden and moving forward with her professional life.”

Peace’s spokesperson declined to comment. A spokesman for the Department of Justice’s Washington-based Fraud Section, which led the Libor prosecutions, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

An attorney representing Sindzingre did not reply to a similar request.

The move by prosecutors comes after court rulings undermined several cases alleging traders at the world’s largest financial institutions rigged the lending benchmark, which was phased out last year.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in 2021 that Bescond could fight the charges from France, rather than travel to the United States.

The same appeals court reversed the convictions of two Deutsche Bank AG traders last year and two London-based Rabobank traders in 2017.

Two Deutsche Bank traders who cooperated with prosecutors had their guilty pleas reversed by judges last August, and traders from other banks are seeking to do the same.

Libor-rigging investigations resulted in about $9 billion of fines worldwide for banks. SocGen agreed in June 2018 to pay $750 million of fines to settle U.S. criminal and civil Libor-rigging charges.

The case is U.S. v. Sindzingre et al., U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York, No. 17-00464.

(Reporting by Jody Godoy in New York; editing by Jonathan Oatis)

By Kanishka Singh

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A Maryland grand jury has indicted a former mayor of College Park on 80 counts of possession of child pornography and intent to distribute, prosecutors in Prince George’s County said on Wednesday.

A representative of the former mayor, Patrick Wojahn, could not immediately be reached. His lawyer told the New York Times earlier this month after Wojahn’s arrest that he was fully cooperating with law enforcement.

An investigation leading to the charges began in February after the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children identified a social media account operating in the county that trafficked in suspected child pornography. The account belonged to Wojahn, the county police said.

He subsequently resigned as mayor of the city, which is home to the main campus of the University of Maryland.

Wojahn was arrested after investigators recovered cell phones, a storage device, a tablet and a computer from his home, police said.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Frank McGurty and Stephen Coates)

By Andrew Hay

(Reuters) -The New Mexico district attorney who charged actor Alec Baldwin for the shooting death of “Rust” cinematographer Halyna Hutchins said on Wednesday she would step down as a prosecutor on the case, marking another win for defense lawyers.

First Judicial District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies said in a statement she was passing prosecution of the case over to long-time New Mexico lawyers Kari Morrissey and Jason Lewis.

Just five weeks before a high-profile preliminary hearing, the Albuquerque attorneys will take over the case as special prosecutors.

Carmack-Altwies is the second prosecutor to resign from a legal team in the case, which has been beset by errors since Baldwin and armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed were charged in January for the death of the rising-star cinematographer.

A previous special prosecutor, Andrea Reeb, a Republican state representative, stepped down on March 15 after Baldwin’s lawyers argued it was unlawful for her to serve as a member of the state judiciary and legislature at the same time.

Lawyers for Gutierrez-Reed this month filed a motion to stop Carmack-Altwies acting as a co-prosecutor in the case, arguing that she could not appoint a new special prosecutor and continue to take part in the prosecution herself.

District court Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer agreed, giving the district attorney until Friday to make a decision.

“Carmack-Altwies will step aside from personally prosecuting the ‘Rust’ case, allowing her to focus on the broader public safety needs in New Mexico’s First Judicial District,” said Heather Brewer, a spokeswoman for the district attorney.

At a hearing starting May 3 Sommer will decide if there is probable cause to try Gutierrez-Reed and Baldwin on criminal charges that require prosecutors prove the pair showed intentional disregard for Hutchins’ safety.

Both were charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter, the most serious of which was subsequently dropped after Baldwin’s lawyers found the law underpinning it was passed after Hutchins was shot.

Baldwin has pleaded not guilty and Gutierrez-Reed is expected to do the same.

Hutchins was killed and “Rust” director Joel Souza wounded on the film set on Oct. 21, 2021 when a revolver Baldwin was rehearsing with fired a live round.

Dave Halls, first assistant director on “Rust, was the only member of the cast and crew charged for Hutchins’ death to enter a guilty plea.

At a 4 p.m. ET (2000 GMT) hearing on Friday Sommer will consider a plea deal he reached with prosecutors for a misdemeanor charge of negligent use of a deadly weapon.

(Reporting By Andrew Hay in Taos, New Mexico; Editing by Leslie Adler, Cynthia Osterman and Sandra Maler)

By Kanishka Singh

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A Maryland grand jury has indicted a former mayor of College Park on 80 counts of possession of child pornography and intent to distribute, prosecutors in Prince George’s County said on Wednesday.

A representative of the former mayor, Patrick Wojahn, could not immediately be reached. His lawyer told the New York Times earlier this month after Wojahn’s arrest that he was fully cooperating with law enforcement.

An investigation leading to the charges began in February after the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children identified a social media account operating in the county that trafficked in suspected child pornography. The account belonged to Wojahn, the county police said.

He subsequently resigned as mayor of the city, which is home to the main campus of the University of Maryland.

Wojahn was arrested after investigators recovered cell phones, a storage device, a tablet and a computer from his home, police said.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Frank McGurty and Stephen Coates)

By Nandita Bose and Susan Heavey

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The White House made an emotional plea on Wednesday for Republican action to curb mass shootings, criticizing conservative lawmakers for saying nothing can be done after the nation’s latest high-profile mass shooting at a school in Tennessee this week.

“It’s unacceptable that Republicans are saying there is nothing that we can do,” White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters at a briefing on Wednesday. “Our schools, our churches, our places of worships have now become deadly places for many Americans.”

Democratic U.S. President Joe Biden has called for bipartisan action to help stop such shootings, including a renewed ban on assault weapons, and described Monday’s attack in Nashville that killed six people, including three children, as “sick.” He told reporters this week he has done what he could through executive action but needs Congress to step up.

Several Republican lawmakers in Congress this week, asked what legislative action could help address the rising tide of gun violence, have said there was little they could do.

“When we start talking about bans or challenging the Second Amendment, I think the things that have already been done have gone about as far as we’re going to with gun control,” Republican U.S. Senator Mike Rounds told CNN earlier on Wednesday, saying instead schools need more funding to harden their security.

The Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects the right of Americans to bear arms.

Biden spoke about the shooting by phone on Wednesday with U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, who has often been a harsh critic of his administration, according to the White House. It did not say whether they discussed policy responses.

(Reporting by Nandita Bose and Susan Heavey; Additional reporting by Katharine Jackson and Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Daniel Wallis)