AFP USA

An approaching US deadline to end tariff exemptions on small parcels has tripped up global deliveries to the world’s biggest economy, with some businesses halting shipments to American consumers and mulling price hikes.Come Friday, President Donald Trump’s administration is abolishing a rule that allows packages valued at $800 or below to enter the United States duty-free.Instead, packages will either be subject to the tariff level applicable to their country of origin, or face a specific duty ranging from $80 to $200 per item.Trump’s trade adviser Peter Navarro told reporters that closing this “loophole” helps restrict the flow of “narcotics and other dangerous and prohibited items” while bringing fresh tariff revenues.But the monthlong lead time Trump’s order provided has sparked a frenzy.Postal services, including in France, Germany, Italy, India, Australia and Japan, earlier said most US-bound packages would no longer be accepted.The UK’s Royal Mail, which took a similar step, announced new services Thursday for customers to continue sending goods to the United States.On Tuesday, the United Nations’ Universal Postal Union said 25 member countries’ postal operators had suspended outbound postal services to the country.”Foreign post offices need to get their act together when it comes to monitoring and policing the use of international mail for smuggling and tariff evasion purposes,” Navarro added Thursday.US officials maintain that just five percent of duty-free small package shipments arrived via the postal network, while most went through express couriers.Yet, the impending change has brought confusion and concern to small businesses.- Delays, cost hikes -UK retailer Liz Nieburg told AFP she had stopped shipping products to US customers while the Royal Mail worked out a system to honor the changes.US buyers form about 20 percent of sales at her online business SocksFox, which sells socks, undergarments and sleepwear.She sees little choice but to hike prices if new duties are here to stay: “Our margins are too tight to be able to absorb that.”The Trump administration has imposed tariffs in rapid succession this year.Cornell University professor Li Chen warned that it takes time for postal services to establish systems for duty collection: “It’s not like there’s a switch you can turn on and turn off.””On the consumer side, there will be potential delays, because now all the parcels have to clear customs,” Chen added. Prices may also rise if businesses pass on the tariffs.He expects the impact on small businesses to be “much greater,” as larger firms can absorb shocks.These include businesses like Chinese-founded consumer platforms Shein and Temu, which were hit when Washington ended the exemption for China-origin products this year. They might have to raise costs, Chen said, but they are not fully dependent on US consumers.Ken Huening, whose California-based business CoverSeal manufactures outdoor protective covers in China and Mexico, has had to eliminate free shipping for customers.While he had benefited from the duty-free exemption, the hit to China and now Mexico is posing challenges.”Textile and manufacturing is not available in the US currently,” Huening said. “It might be in the future, but by that time, we’re all out of business.”- Confusion -“It’s a super confusing time for our customers,” said Haley Massicotte, who runs Canada-based cleaning products company Oak & Willow.She said US consumers do not always understand how tariffs work, and how they might have to bear added costs.”We are going to do everything in our power to not raise prices,” she stressed.Similarly, ceramics retailer Sarah Louise Jour in Bangkok is trying to keep shipping costs down after facing issues with Thailand’s postal service.This forced her to tap more expensive services for shipments to US buyers, constituting some 90 percent of her business.”I don’t have time to worry, because I have to think about my team,” she said. “I have rent I need to pay for the office.”While she expects sales to hold up over the holidays, the outlook is murkier afterwards.Massicotte said: “This tariff war is just going to hurt the American and the Canadian consumer, especially small business owners.”

A shooter who sprayed bullets into a church filled with young students was “obsessed with the idea of killing children,” investigators said Thursday, after reviewing writings and videos that detailed hate for a myriad of groups.As young children attended Mass on Wednesday marking their first week back at school, the attacker opened fire through the stained-glass windows of a church in the Midwestern city of Minneapolis, in the latest deadly shooting that has shaken the United States.The assailant, who died by suicide in the parking lot, left behind a manifesto, online videos and hundreds of pages of writings that investigators have been sifting through while searching for a motive.”The shooter expressed hate towards almost every group imaginable,” including Mexicans, Christians and Jews, acting US attorney for Minnesota Joseph Thompson told a press conference.”The shooter’s heart was full of hate.”The one group the attacker did not hate was “the most notorious school shooters and mass murderers in our country’s history,” whom the suspect “idolized,” Thompson said.In particular, “the shooter was obsessed with the idea of killing children.”The FBI has gathered evidence “demonstrating this was an act of domestic terrorism motivated by a hate-filled ideology,” director Kash Patel said on X earlier Thursday.Two children, aged eight and 10, were killed in the pews of the church during the attack. The number of wounded children rose to 15 on Thursday after one previously unknown victim came forward, city police chief Brian O’Hara told the press conference. Three people in their 80s were also injured.A child is in critical condition, and a pensioner is in serious condition at Hennepin Healthcare facilities, CEO Thomas Klemond told reporters.Police found 116 rifle rounds and three shotgun shells at the scene, as well as a round that appeared to have been stuck in the chamber of a handgun, O’Hara said.The shooter, who had no criminal record, had recently purchased all three guns legally, according to police.The attacker was a 23-year-old who legally changed names in 2020 and identified as a transgender woman, authorities have said.O’Hara requested the media stop saying the shooter’s name because the purpose of this “heinous attack” was to gain “notoriety.”The shooter once attended the Catholic school linked to the church, he added, and the attacker’s mother also previously worked at the church.

From a gold-plated White House to a grandiose revamp for the capital Washington, Donald Trump is trying to leave an architectural mark like no American president has attempted for decades.”I’m good at building things,” the property magnate said earlier this month as he announced perhaps the biggest project of all, a huge new $200-million ballroom at the US executive mansion.Trump made his fortune developing glitzy hotels and casinos branded with his name. Critics say the makeover Trump has given the White House in his second presidency is of a similar style.Parts of it now resemble his brash Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, particularly the newly paved-over Rose Garden with its picnic tables and yellow and white umbrellas.During Trump’s first term the British style writer Peter York dubbed his style “dictator chic,” comparing it to that of foreign autocrats.But Trump has also recently unveiled a grand vision for the entire US capital.Trump signed an executive order on Thursday declaring that “classical architecture” is the preferred style for all federal buildings in Washington — and requiring him to be notified of “brutalist or deconstructivist” plans.And he has explicitly tied his desire to “beautify” Washington to his recent crackdown on crime which has seen him deploy troops in the Democratic-run city — some of whom have ended up clearing up trash.”This is a ratcheting up of the performance of power,” Peter Loge, director of George Washington University’s School of Media, told AFP.”That’s what he does. Puts his name on bibles and casinos, so the logic makes complete sense. Except now he’s playing with lives, the reputation of the United States and a democratic legacy.” – Oval bling -Trump is far from the first president to carry out major renovations at the White House in its 225-year history.Franklin Roosevelt oversaw construction of the current Oval Office in 1934, Harry Truman led a major overhaul that ended in 1951 and John F. Kennedy created the modern Rose Garden in 1961.The White House Historical Association put Trump’s changes in context, saying the building was a “living symbol of American democracy, evolving while enduring as a national landmark.”Its president, Stewart McLaurin, said in an essay in June that renovations throughout history had drawn criticism from the media and Congress over “costs, historical integrity and timing.” “Yet many of these alterations have become integral to the identity of the White House, and it is difficult for us to imagine the White House today without these evolutions and additions,” he wrote.Trump’s changes are nevertheless the furthest reaching for nearly a century.Soon after his return he began blinging up the Oval Office walls with gold trim and trinkets that visiting foreign leaders have been careful to praise. Then he ordered the famed grass of the Rose Garden to be turned into a patio. Trump said he did so because women’s high-heeled shoes were sinking into the turf. After it was finished, Trump installed a sound system and AFP reporters could regularly hear music from his personal playlist blaring from the patio.Trump has also installed two huge US flags on the White House lawns, and a giant mirror on the West Wing colonnade in which the former reality TV star can see himself as he leaves the Oval.- ‘Big beautiful face’ -Billionaire Trump says he is personally funding those improvements. But his bigger plans will need outside help.The White House said the new ballroom planned for the East Wing by the end of his term in January 2029 will be funded by Trump “and other patriot donors.” Trump meanwhile says he expects Congress to agree to foot the $2 billion bill for his grand plan to spruce up Washington.That ranges from a marble makeover at the Kennedy Center for the performing arts to fixing broken road barriers and laying new asphalt.But Trump’s Washington plans also involve a crackdown by the National Guard that he has threatened to extend to other cities like Chicago.He has repeatedly said of the troop presence that Americans would “maybe like a dictator” — even as he rejects his opponents’ claims that he is acting like one.Trump’s own face even looms above Washington streets from huge posters on the labor and agriculture departments.”Mr President, I invite you to see your big beautiful face on a banner in front of the Department of Labor,” Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer said Tuesday at a cabinet meeting.

An approaching US deadline to end tariff exemptions on small parcels has tripped up global deliveries to the world’s biggest economy, with businesses halting shipments to American consumers and mulling price hikes.Come Friday, US President Donald Trump’s administration is abolishing a rule that allows packages valued at $800 or below to enter the country duty-free.But the monthlong lead time he provided to implement the change has sparked a frenzy.Postal services, including in France, Germany, Italy, India, Australia and Japan, earlier announced that most US-bound packages would no longer be accepted.The UK’s Royal Mail, which took a similar step, announced Thursday new services for customers to continue sending goods to the United States.On Tuesday, the United Nations’ Universal Postal Union said 25 member countries’ postal operators had suspended outbound postal services to the country.UK retailer Liz Nieburg told AFP she had stopped shipping products to US customers while the Royal Mail worked out a system to honor the changes.She told AFP that some American customers of her online business SocksFox — which sells socks, underwear and sleepwear — tried to place orders ahead of time to avoid additional costs.But this is risky, given a likely rush of goods entering the United States as other buyers do the same, meaning that products might come up against tariffs anyway.US buyers form about 20 percent of her sales, and she sees little choice but to hike prices if new duties are here to stay: “Our margins are too tight to be able to absorb that.”The Trump administration has imposed tariffs in rapid succession this year.But Cornell Professor Li Chen warned that it takes time for postal services to establish systems for duty collection, to close the so-called “de minimis” exemption for small parcels.”It’s not like there’s a switch you can turn on and turn off,” he said.- Delays, cost hikes -“On the consumer side, there will be potential delays, because now all the parcels have to clear customs,” Chen added. Prices may also rise if businesses pass on the tariffs.”The impact on small businesses probably will be much greater,” he said. Larger companies tend to be more diversified and can absorb the shock.These include businesses like Chinese-founded consumer platforms Shein and Temu, for example, which were hit when Washington ended the exemption for Chinese products this year. They might have to raise costs, Chen said, but they are not fully dependent on US consumers.Online marketplaces like Etsy, where small businesses sell products, could also be impacted.Elsewhere, Ken Huening, whose California-based business CoverSeal manufactures outdoor protective covers in China and Mexico, has had to eliminate free shipping for customers.While he had benefited from the duty-free exemption, the hit to China and now Mexico are posing challenges.”Textile and manufacturing is not available in the US currently,” Huening told AFP.”It might be in the future, but by that time, we’re all out of business,” he said.- Confusion -The changes have fueled uncertainty, with Deutsche Post and DHL Parcel Germany saying last week they would stop accepting certain US-bound parcels, citing lingering questions over customs duties collection.”It’s a super confusing time for our customers,” said Haley Massicotte, who runs Canada-based cleaning products company Oak & Willow.She said US consumers do not always understand how tariffs work, and how they might have to bear added costs.”We are going to do everything in our power to not raise prices,” she stressed.Similarly, ceramics retailer Sarah Louise Jour in Bangkok, Thailand, has been striving to keep shipping costs down after facing issues with the Thai postal service.This forced her to tap more expensive services to send products to US buyers, constituting some 90 percent of her business.”I don’t have time to worry, because I have to think about my team. I do employ people here,” she said. “I have rent I need to pay for the office.”While she expects sales to hold up in the holiday season, the outlook is murkier afterwards.Massicotte said: “This tariff war is just going to hurt the American and the Canadian consumer, especially small business owners.”

US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Thursday lashed out at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) a day after its director was ousted, saying the storied agency needs to be overhauled.Appearing on the conservative Fox News channel, Kennedy was asked about a statement from lawyers representing fired CDC chief Susan Monarez, who accused him of putting millions of lives at risk with his anti-vaccine agenda. He used the opportunity to attack the agency’s competence and priorities.”President Trump has very, very ambitious hopes for CDC right now, and CDC has problems,” he said. “We saw the misinformation coming out of Covid. They got the testing wrong. They got the social distancing, the masks, the school closures that did so much harm to the American people today.”Kennedy then pivoted to attack a 1999 report from the CDC’s science journal, the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, which is still available online and lists vaccination, water fluoridation and family planning among the ten greatest public health achievements of the United States in the 20th century.”We need to look at the priorities of the agency,” said Kennedy, claiming it suffered from a deeply embedded “malaise” that required “strong leadership” to restore gold-standard science.The appearance followed the dramatic firing of Monarez, a career scientist and civil servant who had held the top role for less than a month.”The president fired her, which he has every right to do,” White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said Thursday, adding a replacement would be announced soon. Monarez’s lawyers argue she was improperly fired saying that as a presidential nominee, the president alone has the right to fire her, but she instead received a notice from a White House staffer.For more than 80 years, the CDC has been central to public health, from leading the global eradication of smallpox to identifying the first clusters of HIV-AIDS and spearheading the charge against smoking.But the agency has come under fire since RFK Jr took office. He has dismissed an independent panel of renowned vaccine experts, severely curtailed access to Covid-19 shots, and cut federal funding to mRNA vaccines, the technology credited with saving millions of lives during the pandemic.Amidst the turmoil, five other high-ranking CDC officials also emailed their resignations, including the chief medical officer and the director of the national center for immunization and respiratory diseases, who oversaw the recent mpox response. “The agency is in trouble, and we need to fix it, and we are fixing it,” Kennedy said of the departures. “And it may be that some people should not be working there anymore.”

US Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook filed a lawsuit Thursday to challenge Donald Trump’s move to fire her from her position — as the president intensified pressure on the independent central bank.”This case challenges President Trump’s unprecedented and illegal attempt to remove Governor Cook from her position which, if allowed to occur, would (be) the first of its kind in the Board’s history,” court documents said.Cook seeks a decision to confirm her status as a Fed governor, allowing her to continue in her responsibilities.In requesting “immediate declaratory and injunctive relief,” Cook also seeks an outcome safeguarding Fed officials’ congressionally mandated independence.On Monday evening, Trump published a letter on his Truth Social platform stating that he had removed Cook from her role. He cited accusations of false statements on her mortgage agreements.White House spokesman Kush Desai maintained in a statement Thursday that Trump had “determined there was cause to remove a governor who was credibly accused of lying in financial documents from a highly sensitive position overseeing financial institutions.”Among the alleged false statements was that Cook had claimed two primary residences, one in Michigan and another in Georgia.Cook has not been charged with a crime and the alleged incidents occurred before she was in her current position.Trump’s move marked a dramatic escalation in his effort to exert control over the Fed, in a step that could put the institution’s independence at risk, according to analysts.Cook’s lawsuit stressed that Fed independence “is vital to its ability to make sound economic decisions, free from the political pressures of an election cycle.”For months, the US leader has been calling for the bank to slash interest rates, lashing out repeatedly at Fed Chair Jerome Powell for being “too late” and calling him a “moron.”But policymakers had been holding rates steady as they monitored the effects of Trump’s fresh — and sweeping — tariffs on consumer inflation.By removing Cook, Trump could potentially add another voice to the Fed’s board to try and shift interest rates in his favored direction.A Fed spokesperson has earlier said that the central bank “will abide by any court decision.”The legal dispute marks the latest test of presidential powers under Trump’s new White House term, with the 79-year-old Republican — backed by loyalists throughout the government — forcefully moving to exert executive authority.But even as the Supreme Court’s conservative majority recently allowed Trump to fire members of other independent government boards, it created a carveout for the Fed in its ruling.Federal law says that Fed officials can only be removed for “cause,” which could be interpreted to mean malfeasance or dereliction of duty.

A man convicted of the 1992 murders of three people is to be put to death by lethal injection in Florida on Thursday in the 11th execution in the southern US state this year.Curtis Windom, 59, was sentenced to death for killing his girlfriend Valerie Davis, her mother Mary Lubin, and Johnnie Lee, a man who allegedly owed him a gambling debt.The execution is to be carried out at 6:00 pm (2200 GMT) at the Florida State Prison.There have been 29 executions in the United States in 2025, the most since 2014, when a total of 35 inmates were put to death.Florida has carried out the most executions — 10 — followed by South Carolina and Texas with four each.Twenty-four of this year’s executions have been carried out by lethal injection, two by firing squad and three by nitrogen hypoxia, which involves pumping nitrogen gas into a face mask, causing the prisoner to suffocate.The use of nitrogen gas as a method of capital punishment has been denounced by United Nations experts as cruel and inhumane.The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 US states, while three others — California, Oregon and Pennsylvania — have moratoriums in place.President Donald Trump is a proponent of capital punishment, and on his first day in office called for an expansion of its use “for the vilest crimes.”Trump said earlier this week that he would seek the death penalty for murders in Washington as part of a crackdown on crime in the nation’s capital.

The United States told the United Nations in a letter on Thursday that it will not take part in an upcoming regular review of its record on human rights.”I write to inform you that United States of America will not participate in the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) … scheduled to take place in Geneva on November 7,” the US mission in Geneva said in a letter addressed to UN rights chief Volker Turk, seen by AFP.The standard review is an examination that all 193 UN member states must undergo in turn every four to five years to assess their human rights record.The US decision to snub its review was linked to President Donald Trump’s order back in February withdrawing Washington from a number of UN bodies, including participation in the Human Rights Council (HRC).”As with other HRC mechanisms, engagement in UPRs implies endorsement of the council’s mandate and activities and ignores its persistent failure to condemn the most egregious human rights violators,” a US State Department official, who asked not to be named, told AFP.Thursday’s letter said that the UPR system, which was created after the establishment of the rights council in 2006, was meant to be “based on objective and reliable information and conducted in a manner that ensures equal treatment” of all countries.”However, this is not the case today,” it charged, adding that “the United States objects to the politicisation of human rights across the UN system, as well as the UN’s unrelenting selective bias against Israel”.It also accused the UN of “ignoring human rights abuses in China, North Korea, Cuba and Venezuela”, which it said had “tarnished the UPR process” and other rights council mechanisms.Rights council spokesman Pascal Sim told AFP that “since the inception of the UPR in 2008, the secretariat has occasionally received requests from states to postpone reviews” — for instance, those of Haiti, Sudan  and Ukraine were at different times postponed due to various national crises.The Human Rights Council, which meets from September 8 to October 8, will discuss how best to proceed on the US review, Sim said.Only Israel has previously been a no-show at its own review, back in 2013 when it had disengaged from the council, but in the end they participated in a postponed evaluation.”The Trump administration’s decision to boycott the UPR puts the US among the ranks of the worst violators of human rights,” the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) rights group said in a statement sent to AFP.”This move is a chilling attempt to evade accountability, setting a terrible precedent that would only embolden dictators and autocrats and dangerously weaken respect for human rights at home and abroad.”

Celebrated US musician Jon Batiste wants to use his music to fire up listeners to act against climate change, naming his new album after what he sees as the root of the problem — “Big Money.”The track “Petrichor” in particular is a call to arms for a younger generation who may have turned their backs on mainstream news and analysis about global warming.”It was a warning set to a dance beat,” the Oscar, Emmy and Grammy award-winning artist told AFP. “You know, it’s not just saying ‘this is a problem,’ but it’s also saying we can solve it, and it’s important when you’re changing the world, (you) have a good time while you’re doing it.”As well as the influence of his climate activist mother Katherine, it was the experience of Hurricane Katrina which devastated Batiste’s native New Orleans 20 years ago that inspired him to advocate for the environment through his music.He has previously recounted fleeing New Orleans when Katrina hit the city, claiming more than 1,000 lives and resulting in a humanitarian disaster blamed in part on poor preparedness by federal authorities, and followed by a botched response.”There’s so many people who were displaced and never came back, and the city of New Orleans is really built around the spirit of the people,” said Batiste, 38.”I think about even going back to Hamilton Street in the houses we were growing up in.”His mother said that all her family lived in the city ravaged by flood water during a natural disaster experts said was made worse by climate change.- ‘Burning the planet down’ -“The home that I grew up in, it was destroyed. All my sisters, brothers, my family, their homes were destroyed,” said Katherine.”And so some came back and renovated. One had to rebuild, and then a few of them didn’t return, so they relocated permanently. So everything was lost.”Even 20 years on, swaths of New Orleans remain abandoned and the city’s new flood defenses reportedly face being overwhelmed by the impact of climate change.Batiste said the experience of Katrina and the aftermath should be a wake-up call for all nations — not just the United States.”It’s something the whole planet needs to be worried about. And it can happen anywhere. New Orleans is one place that that can happen, and we’ve seen it happen — and that should be a warning,” he said. “There’s many places where this is happening. You see all the different things that the weather patterns are doing that are abnormal… and it’s because of the pollution blanket that’s around the planet.”His song “Petrichor,” written in a tour bus as Batiste criss-crossed the US, is unflinching in its diagnosis of the situation — and the risks of inaction. The title of the track comes from the pungent scent that typically follows rain on dry earth.”They burning the planet down, Lord,” goes the track.”No more plants for you to eat.”Batiste also points to research proving that less wealthy people and people of color are worst affected by climate change and pollution.”There’s an overwhelming majority of people that believe in clean energy and believe in the power of what we know to be true when switching to these new technologies, how that can shift and change all of our lives and save all of the things that we love the most,” Batiste said.”People have to think about how all of the democracies are set up, which is based on raising your voice and insisting and voting the right people into office.”

Investigators were seeking to find out why a heavily armed shooter opened fire on children at a church service in Minneapolis on Wednesday, killing two pupils and wounding 17 people in the latest violent tragedy to jolt the United States.City police chief Brian O’Hara said that the attacker sprayed bullets through the windows of the Annunciation Church as dozens of young students were at a Mass marking their first week back at school.The church sits next to an affiliated Catholic school in Minneapolis, the largest city in the Midwestern state of Minnesota, where hundreds attended vigils for the victims on Wednesday evening.The FBI is investigating the shooting as an act of domestic terrorism and a hate crime targeting Catholics, according to Director Kash Patel.Authorities identified the attacker as Robin Westman, a 23-year-old transgender woman, who according to US media, had attended the school.”Two young children, ages eight and 10, were killed where they sat in the pews,” O’Hara said. Fourteen wounded children were expected to survive, while three elderly parishioners were also shot, he added.The shooter fired a rifle, shotgun, and pistol before dying by suicide in the parking lot. The attacker had recently purchased the weapons legally, police said.One 10-year-old said he had survived the shooting thanks to a friend who covered him with his body.”I just ran under the pew, and then I covered my head,” he told broadcaster CBS. “My friend Victor saved me though, because he laid on top of me, but he got hit.”A joint statement from the school’s principal and pastor said that within seconds of the start of shooting, “our heroic staff moved students under the pews.”- ‘Unthinkable’ -The mass shooting is the latest in a long line of deadly school attacks in the US, where attempts to restrict easy access to firearms face political deadlock.FBI Director Patel Patel identified the shooter as “Robin Westman, a male born as Robert Westman.”Westman, 23, legally changed name in 2020 and identified as female, court papers show.In a post on X, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the shooter was “claiming to be transgender” and called the attack “unthinkable.”Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey warned against using the attack to lash out at transgender people, and addressed the issue of gun ownership in the US.”Anybody who is using this… as an opportunity to villainize our trans community, or any other community out there, has lost their sense of common humanity,” Frey told reporters.”We’ve got more guns in this country than we have people… we can’t just say that this shouldn’t happen again and then allow it to happen again and again.”- Vigil for victims -More than 600 people attended a vigil mourning the victims at a nearby school on Wednesday evening, the Minnesota Star Tribune reported. One attendee, Louise Fowler, told the newspaper she knew the suspect’s mother when she worked at the church.”The family worked hard with this child who had a lot of problems,” she said of Westman.Videos posted online by the shooter showed a multi-page manifesto, and names and drawings of firearms.O’Hara, the police chief, said the manifesto appeared to show Westman “at the scene and included some disturbing writings and content (that) has since been taken down.””We don’t have a motive at this time,” O’Hara said.The attack drew condemnation and expressions of grief from many including President Donald Trump, who directed US flags at the White House be lowered to half-staff.Pope Leo XIV — the first American to head the Catholic Church — said he was “profoundly saddened” by the tragedy.Minneapolis Archbishop Bernard Hebda pointed out that the attack came just a day after another school shooting near the city, adding in a statement: “We need an end to gun violence.”Former president Barack Obama called it “yet another act of unspeakable, unnecessary violence.”This year, there have been at least 287 mass shootings — defined as a shooting involving at least four victims, dead or wounded — across the country, according to the Gun Violence Archive.