ЦІКАВЕ

WASHINGTON — Vietnamese General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong has hailed improved relations with the U.S. and China as significant gains in the country’s “bamboo” diplomatic strategy of balancing ties with superpowers.

Last year, Vietnam hosted U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping little more than three months apart, moving closer in relationships with the top two powers — both of which want to court Vietnam, according to experts interviewed by VOA.

Between these two moves, Vietnam elevated Japan to one of its six comprehensive strategic partners, along with the U.S. and China.

When addressing the 32nd National Diplomatic Conference on December 19 in Hanoi, Trong said Vietnam’s diplomatic tradition is deeply ingrained with the essence of Vietnamese bamboo, which has “firm roots” and “flexible branches,” reported VCCI News.

Vietnamese diplomacy, according to the party leader, should be adaptive and flexible, aligning with the core tenets of “firm in objectives, flexible in strategies and tactics.”

“Flexible” for balancing

The idea of “bamboo diplomacy” was first coined by Trong in 2016 following his reelection to lead Vietnam’s Communist Party for the second time. Vietnam has actively pursued this diplomatic approach to navigate rising global tensions since 2021.

The policy is exemplified by Vietnam’s careful balancing act. It shares concerns with the U.S. over Beijing’s growing assertiveness in the disputed South China Sea, but it has significant economic links with China.

Following an unprecedented double upgrade of its relationship with the U.S. in September, Vietnam committed to developing a “shared future” with China in December.

“In a world where great powers are constantly competing, and in a world with an uncertain future, it is evident that Vietnam has created certain successes, especially in maintaining and keeping the balance between two great powers who are competing so fiercely,” Hoang Viet, a Ho Chi Minh City Law University lecturer and international dispute expert, told VOA.

Lawyer Dang Dinh Manh, who is following Vietnamese politics while living in exile in the U.S., said that after their upgrades with Hanoi, the U.S. and Japan “are reassured that Vietnam is not too inclined toward China, while the Chinese side is affirmed that Vietnam continues to be in the orbit in the name of friendship with big brother China.”

Hoang Viet, also an expert on China’s South China Sea expansion, said Vietnam had to accept participation in a “community of shared future” with China so as not to upset Beijing and maintain the diplomatic space to establish deeper cooperation with the U.S., Japan and other Western countries for economic development purposes.

“Vietnam was most afraid of adverse reactions from China when it comes to upgrading relations with the U.S. and Japan,” said Hoang Viet. “The U.S. had pushed Vietnam for the relationship elevation for a long time, and Vietnam had to choose a right time for it. Otherwise, it will face anger from China.”

During Xi’s visit, Hanoi and Beijing signed 36 cooperation documents in areas such as infrastructure, trade and security. They also published a joint declaration outlining broad pledges.

Carl Thayer, a professor at the University of New South Wales, branded the declaration as “window dressing,” saying Vietnam is “giving lip service” to Chinese ideas like its Belt and Road Initiative and its “Community of Shared Future.”

“It doesn’t cost [Vietnam] anything,” Thayer, an expert on Vietnam, told VOA. “They are not making a firm stand, and they’re giving the impression that they are supporting, or at least not opposing.”

Trade is an important part of Vietnam’s balancing strategy. The United States, a former enemy of Vietnam, has become its greatest export market for goods, while China is its largest import market.

Following the establishment of new relations with the U.S. and China, Vietnam, as an increasingly strategic player in global supply chains, is projected to see a large influx of foreign capital.

Jensen Huang, CEO of chipmaker Nvidia, visited Hanoi last month and told domestic media that he aimed to set up a base in Vietnam. Meanwhile, the Southeast Asian country is seeing a wave of Chinese firms arriving.

Neutral in a polarized world

Although bamboo diplomacy has served Vietnam well in the face of superpowers’ competition for influence and investment, analysts have warned of limits to Vietnam’s neutral approach.

“Bamboo diplomacy is really about Vietnam maintaining its autonomy and independence and not becoming aligned,” said Thayer. “But now the world is more polarized than ever, and it’s going to make it more and more difficult, I think, to stay out of it.”

Vietnam’s White Paper 2019 stated that the country is pursuing a nonaligned policy known as “Four No,” which means no military alliances; no siding with one country against another; no foreign military bases; and no use of force or threat to use force in international relations.

Vietnam chose to refrain from condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and voted against suspending Russia, Hanoi’s largest arms supplier and longtime ally, from the U.N. Human Rights Council.

“Vietnam, in the sense, will lose some credibility by not speaking out on human rights issues,” Thayer said, adding that “the case of Russia and Ukraine was a prime example.”

According to Alexander Vuving, a professor at the Hawaii-based Asia Pacific Center for Security Studies, the growing chasm between the West on the one hand and China and Russia on the other, will make this approach ever trickier for Vietnam.

“‘Bamboo diplomacy’ won’t provide a sustainable way for Vietnam to cope with the vagaries of Cold War 2,” Vuving told VOA, adding that Vietnam needs “a new ‘safety net’ suitable for the new conditions of the times.”

Similarly, Vu Duc Khanh, a law professor at the University of Ottawa who follows Vietnamese politics, questioned whether Vietnam could retain neutrality in the face of increasingly fierce competition between superpowers.

“The war in Ukraine has changed the entire strategy of countries like Finland, Sweden and Denmark,” Khanh said.

Finland and Sweden applied to join NATO in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, while Denmark, a founding member of NATO, signed a defense basing agreement with the U.S. last month.

On the same note, Thayer said he believed “Vietnam is going to find it’s hard” if the wars in Ukraine and Gaza intensify the competition between the U.S. and China.

Other potential stumbling blocks

“The Biden administration could be replaced by Trump’s. Or the American Congress might get angry with Vietnam on particular issues. Or Vietnam’s position will be an impediment to improving bilateral relations with the United States,” said Thayer.

According to Hoang Viet, Vietnam is watching to learn these lessons against the backdrop of its confrontation in the South China Sea with China.

“For now, Vietnam, as well as Southeast Asian countries, are trying not to take sides as long as it’s possible for them,” said Hoang Viet. “Vietnam will maintain this policy until they cannot do it anymore.”

Last month, General Secretary Trong anticipated that global and regional dynamics would be “complex and unpredictable.”

He warned that “in a multipolar, multicentered world, strategic competition among major nations is inevitable, with heightened risks of conflict and confrontation posing significant challenges for developing countries.”

He urged Vietnamese diplomats to keep a careful eye on the situation to make accurate forecasts and “be persistent yet flexible” in diplomacy.
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NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA — The January 8 inauguration of Jeff Landry as Louisiana governor consolidates Republican Party control of statehouses in America’s Deep South and the region’s shift to more conservative governance.

Nearly 60% of Louisiana voters chose Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election.

Republicans are ready for change at the statehouse in Baton Rouge.

As a candidate and as the state’s attorney general, Landry backed banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender youths, expanding rights for gun owners and enacting a near-total abortion ban without exceptions for rape and incest.

“I’m tired of the government doing everything for everybody, because it makes people lazy,” said retired firefighter Robert Caretto. “I believe in peace through military strength, I believe we shouldn’t make decisions that hurt children with gender changes based on what a small percentage of gay or trans people want, and I believe in strict borders that protect Americans.

“I want to leave this country better for my grandkids, so I want a government that shares my values,” he told VOA. “I’m excited because I think this incoming Louisiana government is a step in the right direction.”

New Orleans event coordinator and Democratic voter Tana Velen sees the new governor as a step backward.

“I’m so worried, especially as a woman, about the direction we’re heading,” she told VOA. “I’m afraid women will lose their lives and their ability to have children because of these decisions being made by politicians instead of doctors, I’m afraid the trans community will no longer have access to gender-affirming care, and I’m afraid his policies will cause Louisiana’s public schools to fall even further behind the rest of the country.”

Outgoing Governor John Bel Edwards “governed for the last eight years as a conservative on most issues even though he was a Democrat,” said Barry Erwin, CEO of the public policy group Council for a Better Louisiana. “When it came to abortion, the right to bear arms and even most fiscal issues, he often sided with Republicans.”

With a legislative supermajority, Erwin said, Republican lawmakers “were able to get most of what they wanted anyway. What they couldn’t do, they’ll be able to do now with Landry as governor. But after they get a few of those higher profile things done in the first year or two, I don’t think things will feel too different.”

 

Shifting Louisiana follows a shifting South

Shifting from a Democratic governor to a Republican governor is part of a decadeslong trend in states across the Deep South. Dillard University professor of Urban Studies and Public Policy Robert Collins said it is partly because past political nuances in the region are gone.

“In America today, politics are more nationalized,” he told VOA. “Democrats are liberal, and Republicans are conservative. You basically either support Trump or you don’t. And everyone basically fits into one of those two categories.

“But from before the Civil War in the 1860s until after the civil rights battles of the 1960s, you had more factions. Rival Democrats could be liberal or conservative, and the GOP was split into liberal and conservative camps, as well.”

There were very few Republicans in the pre-Civil War South because the party’s policies were considered anti-slavery. The economies of southern states, including Louisiana, depended largely on slavery, so voters in the state — who were all white because slaves didn’t have the right to vote — were largely conservative Democrats.

That was mostly unchanged until the Civil Rights Act of 1965, which struck down the discriminatory voting practices adopted in many southern states after the Civil War and finally made it possible for Black Americans at large to vote.

“You would have expected Black voters to align with the Republican Party because they were the party seen to abolish slavery during the Civil War,” Collins said, “but there was no Republican Party in the South in the 1960s. If you wanted your vote to count for something, you had to vote Democrat. So Black southerners became Democrats along with the pro-racism whites — white people were conservative Democrats while Black people were liberal.”

Republicans focused on white, southern Democrats, many of whom were fearful that Black voters were becoming too powerful and were disenchanted with their party for helping pass civil rights laws.

“Republican leaders like Barry Goldwater and future President Richard Nixon saw this disenchantment and offered the Republican Party as an alternative via what is called the ‘Southern Strategy,’” Collins said. “It took decades, but slowly, the conservative Democrats of southern states like Louisiana became Republicans.”

National politics take over

Since Edwards first took office as governor in 2016, Democrats’ share of seats in the Louisiana House of Representatives fell from 41 to 32 out of 105. And within the Republican Party, moderates are losing to more conservative challengers, pushing Louisiana governance further to the right. 

“The other states in the Deep South had already transitioned away from the nuance of local politics,” Collins said, “and with the election of Jeff Landry as governor, it seems Louisiana has finally fully transitioned to the duality of national politics, as well.”

“How do I feel about the direction of our state?” asked Larisa Diephuis, a New Orleans Democrat. “Well, we’re leaving.”
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This week the United States Department of Justice unsealed formerly confidential documents pertaining to convicted sexual offender Jeffrey Epstein. Some of the documents mention big names, including former U.S. Presidents Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, Britain’s Prince Andrew and others. Aron Ranen reports on the story from New York City.
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NEW YORK — Glynis Johns, a Tony Award-winning stage and screen star who played the mother opposite Julie Andrews in the classic movie Mary Poppins and introduced the world to the bittersweet standard-to-be Send in the Clowns by Stephen Sondheim, has died. She was 100.

Mitch Clem, her manager, said she died Thursday at an assisted living home in Los Angeles of natural causes. “Today’s a sad day for Hollywood,” Clem said. “She is the last of the last of old Hollywood.”

Johns was known to be a perfectionist about her profession — precise, analytical and opinionated. The roles she took had to be multifaceted. Anything less was giving less than her all.

“As far as I’m concerned, I’m not interested in playing the role on only one level,” she told The Associated Press in 1990. “The whole point of first-class acting is to make a reality of it.  To be real. And I have to make sense of it in my own mind in order to be real.”

Johns’ greatest triumph was playing Desiree Armfeldt in A Little Night Music, for which she won a Tony in 1973. Sondheim wrote the show’s hit song Send in the Clowns to suit her distinctive husky voice, but she lost the part in the 1977 film version to Elizabeth Taylor.

“I’ve had other songs written for me, but nothing like that,” Johns told the AP in 1990. “It’s the greatest gift I’ve ever been given in the theater.”

Others who followed Johns in singing Sondheim’s most popular song include Frank Sinatra, Judy Collins, Barbra Streisand, Sarah Vaughan and Olivia Newton-John. It also appeared in season two of Yellowjackets in 2023, sung by Elijah Wood. 

Back when it was being conceived, A Little Night Music had gone into rehearsal with some of the book and score unfinished, including a solo song for Johns. Director Hal Prince suggested she and co-star Len Cariou improvise a scene or two to give book writer Hugh Wheeler some ideas. 

“Hal said ‘Why don’t you just say what you feel,'” she recalled to the AP. “When Len and I did that, Hal got on the phone to Steve Sondheim and said, ‘I think you’d better get in a cab and get round here and watch what they’re doing because you are going to get the idea for Glynis’ solo.'”

Johns was the fourth generation of an English theatrical family. Her father, Mervyn Johns, had a long career as a character actor, and her mother was a pianist. She was born in Pretoria, South Africa, because her parents were visiting the area on tour at the time of her birth.

Johns was a dancer at 12 and an actor at 14 in London’s West End. Her breakthrough role was as the amorous mermaid in the title of the 1948 hit comedy Miranda.

“I was quite an athlete, my muscles were strong from dancing, so the tail was just fine; I swam like a porpoise,” she told Newsday in 1998. In 1960’s The Sundowners, with Deborah Kerr and Robert Mitchum, she was nominated for a best supporting actress Oscar. (She lost out to Shirley Jones in Elmer Gantry.)

Other highlights include playing the mother in Mary Poppins, the movie that introduced Julie Andrews and where she sang the rousing tune Sister Suffragette. She also starred in the 1989 Broadway revival of The Circle, W. Somerset Maugham’s romantic comedy about love, marriage and fidelity, opposite Rex Harrison and Stewart Granger.

“I’ve retired many times. My personal life has come before my work. The theater is just part of my life. It probably uses my highest sense of intelligence, so therefore I have to come back to it, to realize that I’ve got the talent. I’m not as good doing anything else,” she told the AP.

To prepare for A Coffin in Egypt, Horton Foote’s 1998 play about a grand dame reminiscing about her life on and off a ranch on the Texas prairie, she asked the Texas-born Foote to record a short tape of himself reading some lines and used it as her coach.

In a 1991 revival of A Little Night Music in Los Angeles, she played Madame Armfeldt, the mother of Desiree, the part she had created. In 1963, she starred in her own TV sitcom, Glynis. 

Johns lived all around the world and had four husbands. The first was the father of her only child, the late Gareth Forwood, an actor who died in 2007.
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NEW YORK — It’s small in stature, big on activity and known for a “smile,” and it’s ready to compete with 200 other dog breeds.

Say hello to the Lancashire heeler, the latest breed recognized by the American Kennel Club. The organization announced Wednesday that the rare herding breed is now eligible for thousands of U.S. dog shows, including the prominent Westminster Kennel Club show.

With long bodies and short coats that are often black and tan, the solidly built dogs are shaped a bit like a downsized corgi, standing around 30 centimeters at the shoulder and weighing up to about 7.7 kilograms. Historically, they were farm helpers that could both drive cattle and rout rats, and today they participate in an array of canine sports and pursuits.

“They’re gritty little dogs, and they’re very intelligent little dogs,” says Patricia Blankenship of Flora, Mississippi, who has bred them for over a decade. “It’s an enjoyable little breed to be around.”

Their official description — or breed standard, in dog-world parlance — calls for them to be “courageous, happy, affectionate to owner,” and owners say contented heelers sometimes pull back their lips in a “smile.”

They’re “extremely versatile,” participating in everything from scent work to dock diving contests, says United States Lancashire Heeler Club President Sheryl Bradbury. But she advises that a Lancashire heeler “has to have a job,” whether it’s an organized dog sport or simply walks and fetch with its owners.

The dogs benefit from meeting various different people and canines, added Bradbury, who breeds them in Plattsmouth, Nebraska.

Lancashire heelers go back centuries in the United Kingdom, where they’re now deemed a “vulnerable native breed” at risk of dying out in their homeland. Britain’s Kennel Club has added an average of just 121 Lancashire heelers annually to its registry in recent years, and the American Kennel Club says only about 5,000 exist worldwide.

Founded in 1884, the AKC is the United States’ oldest purebred dog registry and functions like a league for many canine competitions, including sports open to mixed-breeds and purebreds. But only the 201 recognized breeds vie for the traditional “best in show” trophies at Westminster and elsewhere.

To get recognized, a breed must count at least 300 pedigreed dogs, distributed through at least 20 states, and fanciers must agree on a breed standard. Recognition is voluntary, and some breeds’ aficionados approach other kennel clubs or none at all.

Adding breeds, or even perpetuating them, bothers animal rights activists. They argue that dog breeding powers puppy mills, reduces pet adoptions and accentuates canine health problems by compressing genetic diversity.

The AKC says it promotes responsibly “breeding for type and function” to produce dogs with special skills, such as tracking lost people, as well as pets with characteristics that owners can somewhat predict and prepare for. The club has given over $32 million since 1995 to a foundation that underwrites canine health research.
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white house — South Africa is taking the war in Gaza to a top global court, accusing Israel of genocide in a lengthy court filing that the International Court of Justice is preparing to hear next week.  

Israel says the filing constitutes “blood libel,” and the White House dimisses it as “meritless.”  

More than 22,000 Palestinians have perished since the start of Israel’s offensive on Gaza, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. U.S. officials have previously cast doubt on those figures, noting that the ministry is run by Hamas, the group that was elected to govern Gaza and whose armed wing launched the October 7 attack on Israel that killed more than 1,200 people. 

Hamas, which is designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. and some of its allies, lists the killing of Jews and the elimination of the Jewish state as its main objectives. 

South Africa’s 84-page submission, filed last week, says that Israel’s actions in its Gaza offensive “are genocidal in character, as they are committed with the requisite specific intent … to destroy Palestinians in Gaza as a part of the broader Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group.”

Israel’s use of state organs and agents to do this, they say, is a violation of its obligations under the 1948 Genocide Convention.  

Alarms over possible war crimes

International organizations, including United Nations agencies, have raised alarms over possible war crimes, with the U.N.’s human rights agency calling in November for “prompt, transparent and independent investigations into allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity, perpetrated in Israel and in the Occupied Palestinian Territory on 7 October 2023 and thereafter.”  

Israel’s government has slammed the move as a “decision to play advocate for the devil” and accused South Africa of “blood libel.” The accusation that Jewish people use the blood of Christians in religious rituals has been touted for centuries — notably by the genocidal Nazi regime, which oversaw the extermination of some 6 million Jews — to justify targeting Jews.  

“History will judge South Africa for its criminal complicity with the bloodiest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, and it will judge it without mercy,” said Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy. 

The White House, when asked by VOA, dismissed South Africa’s argument.  

“We find this submission meritless, counterproductive and completely without any basis in fact whatsoever,” said John Kirby, director of strategic communications for the National Security Council.  

South Africa’s Foreign Affairs Ministry did not respond to requests for comment, but spokesperson Clayson Monyela said on the social media platform X that this is an example of his nation’s decision to “flex its diplomatic muscle in defense of humanity.”  

South Africa’s ruling African National Congress has historically supported the Palestinian cause, with the nation’s first democratically elected president, Nelson Mandela, saying, “We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.”  

In the court application, South Africa argues that the treatment of Palestinians also bears strong resemblance to South Africa’s own racially motivated apartheid regime, which ended in 1994 with Mandela’s election.  

“It is important,” the submission reads, “to place the acts of genocide in the broader context of Israel’s conduct towards Palestinians during its 75-year-long apartheid, its 56-year-long belligerent occupation of Palestinian territory and its 16-year-long blockade of Gaza, including the serious and ongoing violations of international law associated therewith, including grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and other war crimes and crimes against humanity.” 

The grassroots Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) says it supports South Africa’s submission, which has also been endorsed by Muslim-majority nations Turkey and Malaysia.  

Robert McCaw, government affairs department director for CAIR, notes that while the group has “condemned the killing of Palestinians and Israelis alike” and the actions of both Hamas and Israel’s government, it believes South Africa’s case “fits the definition of genocide.” 

“When you are systematically erasing Palestinians from Gaza, that is a genocide,” he said. “And you can, you know, use whatever terms you want to dismiss this claim, but it’s a genocide.” 

But can it stop the war? South Africa, in its submission, asks the court to immediately call upon Israel to halt attacks, but it’s not clear whether such a ruling would stick.  

“It can’t enforce its verdicts, but members of the United Nations, which are all the world’s government, they can accept its findings, and that impacts the types of policies that are put out by the U.N.,” McCaw said. 

“So, this can have a significant impact in how we might be able to get a cease-fire or to hold Israel accountable by other means for its ongoing genocide of Palestinians. Also, it’s a very good way to legally document the crimes that are occurring.” 

Proceedings begin January 11 and will be streamed live on the United Nations’ web-based TV site.  
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pentagon — Houthi militants appear to be ignoring U.S. warnings about their repeated attacks on ships in the Red Sea, launching a naval drone Thursday that came within “a couple of miles” of merchant ships and American combat vessels before detonating.

U.S. naval officials said the so-called unmanned surface vessel was launched from Houthi territory in Yemen and traveled about 50 miles into busy shipping lanes before exploding. They said it is unclear who or what the Houthis were trying to target, adding the explosion did not cause any damage or injuries.

“There are no signs that their irresponsible behavior is abating,” Vice Admiral Brad Cooper, head of U.S. Navy operations in the Middle East, told reporters.

“Shipping lanes in this region are dense,” Cooper said. “These Houthi attacks are, for sure, destabilizing and contrary to international law and clearly, as have as has been articulated by many, must stop immediately.”

Twenty-five attacks since November

Since November, the Iranian-backed Houthis have launched 25 attacks on vessels sailing through the Red Sea, claiming the ships are linked to Israel and that the attacks are in support of Palestinians in Gaza.

In response, the United States, along with France, Britain and nearly 20 other countries launched Operation Prosperity Guardian in mid-December to protect ships from Houthi attacks.

So far, about 1,500 vessels have passed safely through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, with the U.S. and its partners shooting down 11 Houthi drones, six anti-ship ballistic missiles and two cruise missiles. U.S. forces also sunk three Houthi boats Sunday after they attacked a container ship.

“We now have the largest surface and air presence in the southern Red Sea in years,” Cooper said. “And in the coming weeks, we expect additional countries to contribute, which will only strengthen our ability to deter.”

But Cooper also said the five warships and other assets taking part in Operation Prosperity Guardian are “entirely defensive in nature” and are separate from any capabilities that might be used to strike at the Houthis.

US, allies warn Houthis

On Wednesday, the U.S. and 12 allies issued a statement warning the Houthis of unspecified consequences if their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea continue.

“Let our message now be clear: We call for the immediate end of these illegal attacks and release of unlawfully detained vessels and crews,” the statement said.

Signatories on the statement include Britain, which on Monday issued its own warning to the Houthis of “direct action,” as well as Australia, Canada, Germany and Japan.

Late Wednesday, a senior U.S. administration official —briefing reporters on the condition of anonymity — said the Houthis should “not anticipate another warning” from the U.S. or its partners.
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Perry, Iowa — Police in Perry, Iowa, say multiple people were shot at the city’s high school Thursday, early on students’ first day back in classes after their annual winter break.

Two gunshot victims were taken by ambulance to Iowa Methodist Medical Center in the state capital of Des Moines, about 64 kilometers southeast of Perry, a community of about 8,000 people. Dallas County Sheriff Adam Infante said the shooting occurred before school was set to start, so there were few students and faculty in Perry High School.

The suspect in the shooting has died of what investigators believe is a self-inflicted gunshot wound, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press. The official was not authorized to publicly discuss details of the investigation and spoke to The AP on condition of anonymity.

The shooting occurred in the backdrop of the Iowa caucuses and not far from where Republican presidential candidates were campaigning.

An active shooter was reported at 7:37 a.m. Thursday morning and officers arrived seven minutes later, Infante said. He added during a news conference that officers located multiple people with injuries, but couldn’t confirm how many there were or their conditions. A spokesperson for UnityPoint Health, which operates the Des Moines hospital, confirmed the two gunshot victims arriving there.

An enormous number of emergency vehicles surrounded the building that houses both the town’s middle school and high school.

Zander Shelley, 15, was in a hallway waiting for the school day to start when he heard gunshots and dashed into a classroom, according to his father, Kevin Shelley. Zander was grazed twice and hid in the classroom before texting his father at 7:36 a.m.

Kevin Shelley, who drives a garbage truck, told his boss he had to run. “It was the most scared I’ve been in my entire life,” he said.

Rachael Kares, an 18-year-old senior, was wrapping up jazz band practice when she and her bandmates heard what she described as four gunshots, spaced apart.

“We all just jumped,” Kares said. “My band teacher looked at us and yelled, ‘Run!’ So we ran.”

Kares and many others from the school ran out past the football field, as she heard people yelling, “Get out! Get out!” She said she heard additional shots as she ran, but didn’t know how many. She was more concerned about getting home to her 3-year-old son.

“At that moment I didn’t care about anything except getting out because I had to get home with my son,” she said.

FBI agents from the Omaha-Des Moines office were on scene to help with the investigation led by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation.

“There are a bunch of speculative numbers floating around,” said Dirk Cavanaugh, Perry’s mayor. “We have no confirmed numbers of who was involved yet.”

Erica Jolliff said that her daughter, a ninth grader, reported getting rushed from the school grounds at 7:45 am. Distraught, Jolliff was still looking for her son Amir, a sixth grader, one hour later.

“I just want to know that he’s safe and OK,” Jolliff said. “They won’t tell me nothing.”

Jasmine Augustine, 18, was at the high school shortly after everything happened Thursday morning. She said she was dropping off a friend at the high school and his brother, who goes to the town’s elementary school about a mile (1.61 kilometers) away.

“I was at Casey’s convenience store and saw one car speed by. I thought it was just someone getting pulled over,” she said.

Augustine said that when she pulled in at the high school, someone told her there was an active shooter “and then we hurried up and left.”

“After that, there’s just tons and tons and tons of cops who came,” said Augustine, whose sister attends the high school but wasn’t near what happened. Jasmine and her dad picked up her sister from the armory afterward.

The high school is part of the 1,785-student Perry Community School District. The town of Perry is more diverse than Iowa as a whole, with census figures showing that 31% of the residents are Hispanic, compared to less than 7% for the state. Those figures also show that nearly 19% of the town’s residents were born outside the U.S.

The shooting occurred in the backdrop of the Iowa caucuses and not far from where Republican candidates were campaigning.

Phone messages left with the Perry School Board’s president and vice president, and an email message left with Superintendent Clark Wicks, were not immediately returned.
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