AP News in Brief at 6:04 p.m. EST

Teacher and a teenage student killed in a shooting at a private Christian school in Wisconsin

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A teenage student opened fire with a handgun Monday at a private Christian school in Wisconsin, killing a teacher and another teenager during the final week before Christmas break. The shooter also died, police said.

The shooter also wounded others at Abundant Life Christian School, including two students who were in critical condition and four with less serious injuries, Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes said.

“I’m feeling a little dismayed now, so close to Christmas,” Barnes said. “Every child, every person in that building is a victim and will be a victim forever. … We need to figure out and try to piece together what exactly happened.”

The shooter was a 17-year-old female student, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press. The official was not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation and spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity.

Police said the shooter was dead by apparent suicide when officers arrived. Barnes declined to give details about the shooter, partly out of respect for the family. With a few rare exceptions, a 17-year-old can’t legally possess a gun in Wisconsin.

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The Latest: Teacher and a student killed in a shooting at a private Christian school in Wisconsin

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A teenage student opened fire at the Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin on Monday, killing a teacher and another teenage student in the final week before Christmas break. The shooter also died, police said.

Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes did not give details about the age or gender of the suspected shooter who also wounded six others at Abundant Life Christian School, a K-12 school with about 390 students. Of those wounded, Barnes said two of them were in critical condition with life-threatening injuries. The other four had non-life-threatening injuries, Barnes said.

Barnes said the suspected shooter was a student who likely died by suicide.

A law enforcement official who was not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation told The Associated Press that the shooter was a 17-year-old female student.

Here is the Latest:

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Ukraine and US say some North Korean troops have been killed fighting alongside Russian forces

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s military intelligence agency and the Pentagon said Monday that some North Korean troops have been killed during combat against Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk border region.

These are the first reported casualties since the U.S. and Ukraine announced that North Korea had sent 10,000 to 12,000 troops to Russia to help it in the almost 3-year war.

Ukraine’s military intelligence agency said around 30 North Korean troops were killed or wounded during battle with the Ukrainian army over the weekend.

The casualties occurred around three villages in Kursk, where Russia has for four months been trying to quash a Ukrainian incursion, the agency, known by its acronym GUR, said in a public post on the Telegram messaging app.

At least three North Korean servicemen went missing around another Kursk village, GUR said.

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Negotiators say Israel and Hamas are inching toward a ceasefire deal. This is what it may look like

After months of deadlock, Israel and Hamas appear to be moving closer toward a ceasefire to end their 14-month war.

Top officials from the U.S., Qatar and Egypt have resumed their mediation efforts in recent weeks and reported greater willingness by the warring sides to wrap up a deal. In a key concession, Hamas officials say they are prepared to show more “flexibility” on the timing of an Israeli troop withdrawal from Gaza, and Israel’s defense minister, Israel Katz, said Monday that a deal is closer than ever.

Officials on all sides have cautioned that key details must still be worked out. But there is a general sense of optimism that has been lacking for many months.

The changing sentiment appears to be the result of several factors. Israel has inflicted heavy damage on Hamas over the course of the war. The group is more isolated after Hezbollah’s ceasefire with Israel, and Iran, a key backer of both militant groups, has suffered a number of setbacks, highlighted by the downfall of its close ally, Syria’s Bashar Assad.

In the U.S., both the outgoing Biden administration and the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump have signaled they want a deal completed before the Jan. 20 inauguration.

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Trump weighs in on NY mayor, vaccines and drones in freewheeling press conference at Mar-a-Lago

PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — In a freewheeling press conference at his Mar-a-Lago club, President-elect Donald Trump said Monday he would consider pardoning embattled New York Mayor Eric Adams, declared the country was “not going to lose” the polio vaccine and weighed in on the flurry of drone sightings over New Jersey.

Holding court with reporters for the first time since he won the election and secured a second term, Trump also called on the Biden administration to stop selling off unused portions of southern border wall, threatening legal action.

“We’re going to spend hundreds of millions of dollars more on building the same wall we already have,” he railed. “It’s almost a criminal act.”

Trump’s performance Monday underscored how he has already forced his return to the center of the national political conversation, weeks before he is set to return to the Oval Office. The session was notably less combative than some of the more heated exchanges he held with reporters during the campaign. Trump, looking relaxed at the lectern, joked with those he recognized and talked about how much easier the transition has been than after his first election.

“The first time everybody was fighting me,” he said. “This time everyone wants to be my friend.”

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Canada’s finance minister resigns as unpopular Trudeau faces biggest test of his political career

TORONTO (AP) — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau faced the biggest test of his political career after Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, long one of his most powerful and loyal ministers, resigned from the Cabinet on Monday.

The stunning move raised questions about how much longer the prime minister of nearly 10 years — whose popularity has plummeted due to concerns about inflation and immigration — can stay on as his administration scrambles to deal with incoming U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.

Trudeau swiftly named longtime ally and friend Dominic LeBlanc, previously the pubic safety minister who recently joined the prime minister at dinner with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, to replace Freeland.

After being sworn in, LeBlanc told reporters he and Trudeau are focused on the cost of living facing Canadians and on finding common ground with Trump on border security and economic issues.

“I’m very confident that we can continue to do the necessary work,” LeBlanc said.

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Drone detectors in New Jersey have found ‘little or no evidence’ of wrongdoing, governor says

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Drone-detecting devices deployed in New Jersey in the past week have found “little to no evidence” of anything nefarious or threatening, Gov. Phil Murphy said Monday as calls grew for action to address the mysterious nighttime sightings of suspected unmanned flights across the northeastern U.S.

Murphy told reporters in Trenton that there were 12 sightings of suspected drones in the state on Saturday and one on Sunday. He declined to go into detail about the detection equipment, but said it was powerful enough to disable the drones, although he added that is not legal on U.S. soil.

Murphy, a Democrat, echoed calls by state officials elsewhere for Congress to allow them to deal with drones. Nearly all the power now rests with the federal government.

“It is extraordinary to me that, that a nation as great as ours and as powerful as ours has the deficiencies that we have now seen in living color as it relates to drone incursions,” Murphy said.

Federal officials, including Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, have repeatedly said there are no signs that any drone operators have shown bad intent, nor is there evidence of foreign involvement.

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TikTok asks the Supreme Court for an emergency order to block a US ban unless it’s sold

WASHINGTON (AP) — TikTok on Monday asked the Supreme Court to step in on an emergency basis to block the federal law that would ban the popular platform in the United States unless its China-based parent company agreed to sell it.

Lawyers for the company and China-based ByteDance urged the justices to step in before the law’s Jan. 19 deadline. A similar plea was filed by content creators who rely on the platform for income and some of TikTok’s more than 170 million users in the U.S.

“A modest delay in enforcing the Act will create breathing room for this Court to conduct an orderly review and the new Administration to evaluate this matter — before this vital channel for Americans to communicate with their fellow citizens and the world is closed,” lawyers for the companies told the Supreme Court.

President-elect Donald Trump, who once supported a ban but then pledged during the campaign to “save TikTok,” said his administration would take a look at the situation.

“As you know, I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok,” Trump said during a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. His campaign saw the platform as a way to reach younger, less politically engaged voters.

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Who is the alleged Chinese spy with close ties to Britain’s Prince Andrew?

LONDON (AP) — An alleged Chinese spy who cultivated close ties with Prince Andrew said Monday he has done “nothing wrong or unlawful” as Britain’s government faced questions about what it is doing to thwart security threats from China.

British authorities allege businessman Yang Tengbo — known only as “H6” until a High Court judge lifted an anonymity order Monday — was working on behalf of the United Front Work Department, an arm of the Chinese Communist Party that is used to influence foreign entities.

It’s the most high-profile case in a series of espionage scandals in recent years that involved suspected or confirmed Chinese intelligence-gathering in Britain’s establishment, including in Parliament.

Here’s a look at Yang’s case:

Yang, 50, also known as Chris Yang, is listed as a director of Hampton Group International, a business consultancy advising U.K.-based companies on their operations in China. He has been photographed with senior U.K. politicians, including former Prime Ministers David Cameron and Theresa May, at events.

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Former TV host Carlos Watson gets nearly 10 years in prison in case about failed startup Ozy Media

NEW YORK (AP) — Former talk show host Carlos Watson was sentenced Monday to nearly 10 years in prison in a federal financial conspiracy case that cast his once-buzzy Ozy Media as an extreme of fake-it-’til-you-make-it startup culture.

So extreme that another Ozy executive impersonated a YouTube executive to hype Ozy to investment bankers — while Watson coached him, prosecutors said.

Watson, 55, and the now-defunct company were found guilty last summer of charges including wire fraud conspiracy. He has denied the allegations and plans to appeal.

“I loved what we built with Ozy,” he said in court Monday, initially addressing supporters in the audience before the judge suggested he turn around. Watson told the judge he was a target of “selective prosecution” as a Black entrepreneur in Silicon Valley, where African American executives have been disproportionately few, and called the case “a modern lynching.”

“I made mistakes. I’m very, very sorry that people are hurt, myself included,” he said, but “I don’t think it’s fair.”

The Associated Press