Calls for police to release the "manifesto" that authorities say was written ahead of Monday's Nashville school shooting has prompted concern among LGBTQ+ groups, who caution against the publication of such a document.

While many details remain to be unveiled about the massacre at The Covenant School this week, police have identified the shooter as 28-year-old Audrey Hale. On Monday, Hale, armed with two assault-style weapons—a rifle and a pistol—as well as a handgun, fatally shot three children and three staff members at the school before being killed by police.

The quality of Ukraine’s military force, once considered a substantial advantage over Russia, has been degraded by a year of casualties that have taken many of the most experienced fighters off the battlefield, leading some Ukrainian officials to question Kyiv’s readiness to mount a much-anticipated spring offensive, writes ‘Washington Post’.

U.S. and European officials have estimated that as many as 120,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed or wounded since the start of Russia’s special military operation early last year. Ukraine keeps its running casualty numbers secret, even from its staunchest Western supporters.

Statistics aside, an influx of inexperienced draftees, brought in to plug the losses, has changed the profile of the Ukrainian force, which is also suffering from basic shortages of ammunition, including artillery shells and mortar bombs, according to military personnel in the field.

A German official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to be candid, said that Berlin estimates Ukrainian casualties, including dead and wounded, are as high as 120,000. “They don’t share the information with us because they don’t trust us,” the official said.

China’s President Xi Jinping has said he signed an agreement with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin bringing their ties into a “new era” of cooperation, as the two leaders called for “responsible dialogue” to resolve the Ukraine crisis.

“We signed a statement on deepening the strategic partnership and bilateral ties which are entering a new era,” Xi said following talks with Putin in the Kremlin on Tuesday.

The talks were intended to cement the “no limits” partnership the two leaders announced last February, less than three weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine.

Washington said a Russian fighter plane caused a US spy drone to crash into the Black Sea on Tuesday, marking the first direct encounter between US and Russian forces since Moscow invaded Ukraine more than a year ago.
Russia said the US drone intruded in an area declared off-limits and that fighter jets scrambled to intercept the drone but did not cause it to crash.

According to the Pentagon, two Russian Su-27 aircraft flew in front of the US MQ-9 Reaper drone, dumped fuel on it, and eventually one jet “struck the propeller” of the drone requiring US forces to bring it “down in international waters”.

Moscow says that due to “sharp” manoeuvres, “the US drone went into uncontrollable flight with a loss of altitude” and crashed.