U.S. President Joe Biden plans to announce the extension of U.S. military presence in Poland and changes to U.S. deployments in several Baltic countries during the NATO summit in Europe, NBC reported on Tuesday.

The changes could affect countries such as Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. The White House has not responded yet.

At least 18 people were killed and 59 others wounded in a missile strike on a mall in Kremenchuk in central Ukraine, the head of Ukraine's emergency services said on Tuesday.

Ukrainian President Zelenskyy said in a Telegram message on Monday that more than 1,000 civilians were at the mall when the missile hit and accused Russia of the attack. 

The mall is roughly the size of two football fields and the strike occurred at around 4 p.m. local time.

Photos from the scene showed heavy smoke billowing from the building, which is engulfed by fire. 

The Ukrainian Air Force Command said the mall had been hit by at least one Kh-22 missile fired by Tu-22 M3 bombers operating in the Kursk region of Russia, near the Ukrainian border. 

Russia has not yet officially commented on the strike. Russian First Deputy Representative to the UN Dmitry Polyansky retweeted a post about Zelenskyy's claim. 

Calling the attack an apparent new Bucha-style Ukrainian provocation, Polyansky said there are too many striking discrepancies already. "Exactly what Kiev regime needs to keep focus of attention on Ukraine before NATO summit," he said. 

The United Nations Security Council will hold an emergency meeting on Tuesday, with the Kremenchuk attack being "the main focus," the UN body said.

Canada on Monday announced more measures in response to Russia's military operation in Ukraine, including additional sanctions and a ban on the export of technologies that could help improve Russia's defense manufacturing capability.

The new sanctions would target six individuals and 46 entities linked to the Russian defense sectors, 15 Ukrainians supporting Russia, and 13 individuals and two entities in Belarus, according to a statement from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's office.

(With input from Reuters)

New York State Governor Kathy Hochul on Wednesday called for legislation that would raise the age of purchasing certain types of firearms from 18 to 21 in New York in the wake of mass shootings in Texas and Buffalo this month that have jolted the United States.

Hochul said  "at minimum” she wants the law to limit AR-15 purchases for those under age 21.

Her comments come a day after a mass shooting at an elementary school in Texas and 11 days after a mass shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo.

In the Buffalo shooting, the 18-year-old alleged shooter used an AR-15-style rifle. In Texas, the 18-year-old alleged shooter, who died at the scene, used a handgun and possibly a rifle, according to the Texas governor.

"I don't want an 18 year old to have a gun," Hochul said after holding a meeting of an interstate task force addressing the flow of illegal firearms into New York.

Hochul added she would call a special session of the Legislature if the U.S. Supreme Court in the coming weeks overturns New York's strict limits on conceal carry of firearms. Hochul has previously proposed measures meant to tighten the state's law addressing the access of firearms for people who are deemed to be too dangerous.

State lawmakers are expected to take up a package of gun control measures by next week before their scheduled end to the legislative session.

U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday evening called for action as well on guns, but activity on the issue in the narrowly divided Congress is unlikely.

The governor decried the spate of mass shootings that have rocked the country this month, but said the pain should be channeled into action.

(With input from agencies)

The Texas elementary school shooting, which left 19 children and two adults dead, came just 10 days after the events in Buffalo, New York, where 10 people were gunned down in a supermarket.

It is also the 213th mass shooting in the U.S. in 2022, according to a database run by Gun Violence Archive (GVA). The nonprofit research group views an incident as a mass shooting if four or more people are shot, wounded or killed, excluding the gunman.

With just over 19 weeks into the year, the 213 mass shootings average out to about 10 such attacks a week.

A man wanted in an apparently unprovoked fatal shooting on a New York City subway train was arrested on Tuesday, hours after authorities posted his name and photo on social media and implored the public to help find him. At a news conference, New York City Mayor Eric Adams said such shootings were happening far too often.

U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday called for stronger gun control measures after a school shooting in Texas that left at least 19 students and two adults dead.

The Texas school shooter Salvador Ramos worked the day shift at a local food chain Wendy's, and "kept to himself mostly," CNN reported Tuesday, quoting a manager at the restaurant.

A former classmate of Ramos said the gunman texted him photos of a firearm and a bag full of ammunition days before the shooting, according to CNN.

Ramos was "taunted by others for the clothes he wore and his family's financial situation," the report quoted the classmate as saying.

The death toll of the Texas elementary school shooting has risen to 19 children and two adults, a state police official said. It is the deadliest American school shooting since the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary a decade ago.

The death toll from the elementary school shooting in Texas has risen to 19 students and two adults, the state police said on Tuesday.

The gunman was also killed in the shooting, police said. 

U.S. President Joe Biden's public approval rating fell to 36% this week, the lowest level of his presidency, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll completed on Tuesday, as Americans suffer from rising inflation.

The two-day national poll found that 59% of Americans disapprove of Biden's job performance. His overall approval was down six percentage points from 42% last week.

(Cover: U.S. President Joe Biden attended the Quad Leaders Summit at Kantei in Tokyo on May 24, 2022. /CFP)

There have been at least 212 mass shootings in the United States to date in 2022, CNN has reported, citing the non-profit organization Gun Violence Archive, which is equal to more than one per day on average.

A gunman opened fire at an elementary school in south Texas on Tuesday, killing 18 children. The deadly violence in Texas follows a series of mass shootings in the United States this month.

On May 14, an 18-year-old white man shot 10 people dead at a Buffalo, New York grocery store. The following day, a man blocked the door of a church in Laguna Woods, California and opened fire on its Taiwanese-American congregation, killing one person and injuring five.

Here is a look at how gun violence has soared in the U.S. during the COVID-19 pandemic.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was deeply shocked by the shooting and extended his condolences to the families and loved ones of the victims and to the entire community, his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.

U.S. President Joe Biden said Tuesday night that the United States should "stand up to the gun lobby" after a mass shooting at an elementary school in Texas.

"I am sick and tired of it. We have to act," Biden said in emotional remarks from the Roosevelt Room of the White House. He called the shooting a "carnage."

"The gun manufacturers have spent two decades aggressively marketing assault weapons which make them the most and largest profit," he continued. "We have to have the courage to stand up to the industry."

At least 19 children and two adults were killed in the shooting at Robb Elementary School in the town of Uvalde in Texas, on Tuesday.

The suspect, identified as 18-year-old Uvalde High School student Salvador Rolando Ramos, was killed by responding officers.

"The idea that an 18-year-old kid can walk into a gun store and buy two assault weapons is just wrong," noted Biden.

"What struck me was these kinds of mass shootings rarely happen anywhere else in the world," he pointed out. "These kinds of mass shootings never happen with the kind of frequency that they happen in America."

The United States has seen at least 213 mass shootings so far this year, according to an online database that keeps a record of the country's gun violence incidents.

More than 17,000 people have died in gun-related episodes across the United States over the past five months, including approximately 640 children and teenagers.

A mass shooting in a Buffalo grocery store in New York 10 days ago increased pressure on the Biden administration to make good its vow to crack down on gun violence, and the killing of elementary school children is likely to further increase that pressure.

"Tonight, there are parents who will never see their child again. Parents who will never be the same," Biden said, calling for efforts to "turn this pain into action."

March for Our Lives, a student-led movement supporting gun control legislation, tweeted that "you can't stop a bullet with thoughts and prayers."

"To honor those lost and save countless lives, we need action," the group wrote. "We're dying while we wait for it."

Tuesday's massacre is the deadliest American school shooting since the rampage in 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, leaving 20 children and eight adults dead.

Before the Uvalde massacre, there were already 26 school shootings resulting in injury or death in the country this year, according to Education Week, which tracks shootings at schools.

Read more:

20 weeks into the year, the U.S. has already seen 213 mass shootings

'What are we doing?' U.S. senator makes emotional plea after Texas shooting

U.S. has failed in its duty to ensure safety and order for its citizens: expert

(With input from agencies)

Flags at the White House were lowered to half-staff on Tuesday following the deadly shooting at a South Texas elementary school that killed 18 students, live footage showed.

U.S. President Joe Biden is expected to address the nation soon over the shooting.

An 18-year-old gunman opened fire Tuesday at a Texas elementary school, killing at least 19 children and a teacher as he went from classroom to classroom, officials said. The attacker was killed by law enforcement.

The attack in Uvalde – a small Texan community about an hour from the Mexican border – is the latest in a spree of deadly shootings in the United States, where widespread horror at gun violence has failed to spur action to head off future killings.

It is the deadliest such incident since 14 high school students and three adult staff were killed in Parkland, Florida in 2018, and the worst at an elementary school since the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting in Connecticut, in which 20 children and six staff were killed.

The school, which teaches more than 500, mostly Hispanic and economically disadvantaged students from second through fourth grade, called on parents not to pick up their children until all were accounted for.

"Please do not pick up students at this time. Students need to be accounted for before they are released to your care. You will be notified to pick up students once all are accounted for," the school said on its website.

Wave of gun violence

The deadly violence in Texas follows a series of mass shootings in the United States this month.

On May 14, an 18-year-old white man shot 10 people dead at a Buffalo, New York grocery store.

Wearing heavy body armor and wielding an AR-15 rifle, the self-declared white supremacist allegedly livestreamed his attack, having reportedly targeted the store because of the large surrounding African American population.

The following day, a man blocked the door of a church in Laguna Woods, California and opened fire on its Taiwanese-American congregation, killing one person and injuring five.

As of May 16, around 7,000 people died from gun homicides or accidental shootings in the U.S. in 2022, according to data from research group Gun Violence Archive (GVA), which views an incident to be a mass shooting if four or more people are shot, wounded or killed, excluding the gunman.

The data also showed the U.S. witnessed at least 202 mass shootings in 2022. 

The United States suffered 19,350 firearm homicides in 2020, up nearly 35 percent compared to 2019, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in its latest data.

Gun control urged

"Enough is enough," said Vice President Kamala Harris in the wake of the tragedy. "We have to have the courage to take action."

Ted Cruz, a pro-gun rights Republican senator from Texas, tweeted that he and his wife were "lifting up in prayer the children and families in the horrific shooting in Uvalde."

But Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, made an impassioned appeal for concrete action to prevent further violence.

"I'm here on this floor to beg, to literally get down on my hands and knees and beg my colleagues: Find a path forward here. Work with us to find a way to pass laws that make this less likely."

Read more:

Why is it so hard for the U.S. to control guns?

Scholars call for mental health care, gun control, digital literacy to curb U.S. gun violence

Despite recurring mass-casualty shootings, multiple initiatives to reform gun regulations have failed in the U.S. Congress, leaving states and local councils to enact their own restrictions.

According to a report released by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) on May 17, the first comprehensive federal tally of gun commerce in two decades, the annual number of firearms manufactured in the U.S. has nearly tripled since 2000, spiking sharply in the past three years.

The findings "painted a vivid statistical portrait of a nation arming itself to the teeth. Buyers capitalized on the loosening of gun restrictions by the Supreme Court, Congress and Republican-controlled state legislatures," The New York Times reported on the same day.

The National Rifle Association has been instrumental in fighting against stricter U.S. gun laws. Abbott and Cruz are listed as speakers at a forum that is being held by the powerful lobby in Houston, Texas later this week.

(With input from agencies)

To ban or not to ban? Gun control has been a dividing issue in the U.S. for decades. But little change has been made to gun laws. From May 14 to May 20, the United States was shaken by a series of shootings across the country. What are the reasons behind it? And how serious is America's gun violence？