A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
We've learned new details about the mother of the alleged gunman in last week's school shooting in Winder, Ga. That's where four people were killed and nine others were injured.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Yeah, the mother called the school the morning of the attack to warn administrators about her son. Apalachee High School will remain closed while the investigation continues.
MARTÍNEZ: With us now is Chase McGee of Georgia Public Broadcasting. Chase, what can you tell us about the phone call the alleged shooter's mother made?
CHASE MCGEE, BYLINE: Yeah. So Marcee Gray is the mother of the alleged 14-year-old gunman, Colt. Text messages surfaced over the weekend about conversations that she'd had with her sister, Colt's aunt, about a phone call she made to the high school. And she was worried about her son. She'd apparently received some alarming messages from him that morning, so she called a school counselor and spoke to that person about 10 minutes - for 10 minutes, about 30 minutes before the shooting started. And administrators seemed to take that call seriously. We know someone went to go to a classroom where he was supposed to be, but he wasn't there, so then the school administrator leaves. And it's not much later that the alleged gunman tried to enter that classroom but was prevented because there was a locked door in between him and the class.
MARTÍNEZ: OK. So administrators did act. Did they do enough, though, to react?
MCGEE: Yeah. I'll say since these text messages have come to light, the school district and other educators have referred questions to authorities. But we know from witnesses inside the school that the school might not have ordered a lockdown as quickly as they could have. There was also some confusion because there was another student with a similar name who happened to be in that same algebra class but wasn't there when the administrator came in after the phone call with the suspect's mother. And I'll say there's still a lot of unanswered questions. We're hoping this next week will give us some clarity as the investigation moves forward.
MARTÍNEZ: So on that investigation, where do things stand?
MCGEE: Yeah. Last Friday, we saw the alleged gunman appear in court along with his father. The son is charged with murder and will be tried as an adult. He is 14 years old, and the maximum sentence for him would be life in prison. Like I mentioned, the boy's father also had his day in court. He was arrested Thursday night, the day after the shootings. He's being charged with murder because he bought the gun for his son that was allegedly used in those shootings, and they're both currently being held in state custody. We're expecting to hear that they'll have new legal counsel representing them soon. Their next court appearance isn't until early December, and we're waiting to hear more from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. They're leading up the investigation on this case.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah. It's been five days since the shooting. How are people doing there?
MCGEE: Well, I'll say it's really tough. One thing we heard from people right after the shooting is that this isn't the kind of thing that happens in Winder, and we've heard that after mass shootings across the U.S. There's been a number of vigils. And yesterday we saw church sermons where pastors reflected on the difficult moments in the immediate aftermath, but also the really difficult couple weeks to come. In Winder, the state is opening what's called a community recovery center today. People can go there for spiritual and mental health care. There will be representatives from several faith-based organizations. But the wounds of what happened are running really deep, and it's not just for people who were inside the school, it's the hundreds or thousands of others traumatized by what happened this past week.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah. Georgia Public Broadcasting's Chase McGee. Thank you very much.
MCGEE: Thank you.
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MARTÍNEZ: The candidate who is widely believed to have won the July presidential election in Venezuela is no longer in the country.
INSKEEP: Edmundo Gonzalez was facing arrest for challenging the results of that election, defying authorities. Instead of being arrested, he flew to Spain over the weekend, where he has been granted political asylum.
MARTÍNEZ: Reporter John Otis has been covering the story, joins us now. John, Gonzalez appeared to have won the election by a landslide, but instead of moving into the palace, he fled to Spain. So what happened?
JOHN OTIS: Yeah, it's quite a twist. Most electoral observers believe Gonzalez won the July 28 election. In fact, the opposition published voter tally sheets showing Gonzalez leading President Nicolas Maduro by a 2-to-1 margin. The problem is that Maduro controls all branches of power in Venezuela and is backed by the military. He could also face arrest overseas for drug trafficking and other crimes if he were to actually step down. So Maduro simply declared that he won the election, and then he launched a brutal crackdown on the opposition. His regime has now jailed more than 2,000 people, and they were about to arrest Gonzalez, who hid out in the Spanish embassy in Caracas.
MARTÍNEZ: So how did he manage to get out?
OTIS: Well, there were a lot of behind-the-scenes negotiations, and then over the weekend, the Maduro regime came out with a statement saying Gonzalez could leave the country. So then, along with his wife, he boarded a Spanish military aircraft and flew to Madrid. And once there, he released this brief message to his followers.
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EDMUNDO GONZALEZ: (Speaking Spanish).
OTIS: So here, Gonzalez is saying, "my departure from Caracas was surrounded by acts of pressure, coercion and threats. I trust that we will soon continue our fight for freedom and the restoration of Venezuelan democracy."
MARTÍNEZ: So how can he do that if he's now in exile?
OTIS: Yeah. I mean, that's a good question. Gonzalez joins an ever-expanding group of exiled Venezuelans who've gone to Spain, that includes four previous presidential hopefuls. But once politicians leave, it usually means that they're gone for good. It's starting to resemble Cuba's exile community that's based in Miami but has, really, very little political influence on the island. So in the end, the Maduro regime, it may be that they're quite pleased that Gonzalez is no longer inside of Venezuela.
MARTÍNEZ: But is there anyone left inside Venezuela that maybe can fight for democracy?
OTIS: There is. There's still Maria Corina Machado. Remember, she was going to be the opposition presidential candidate, but she was banned from running and selected Gonzalez as her last-minute stand-in. Machado has gone into hiding. But she's also been making some dramatic appearances at opposition rallies. However, at this point, the opposition really is up against a wall. They were hoping the U.S. and other countries would recognize Gonzalez as Venezuela's new president-elect. But now that seems out of the question now that he's out of the country.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah, and it seems like that all adds up to Maduro being around for a while.
OTIS: Yeah, that's exactly what it does look like. Despite his dismal showing at the polls, Maduro is insisting that he won another six-year term. And that's on top of his ruling party already controlling Venezuela for the past quarter century.
MARTÍNEZ: That's John Otis, who's been reporting on Venezuela for us. John, thank you.
OTIS: Thanks.
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INSKEEP: Secretary of State Antony Blinken is traveling to London today.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah, the United States and the United Kingdom have what they call a special relationship. And it's true, around the world, the U.S., U.K. and three former British colonies form the Five Eyes intelligence sharing group. The U.K. and Australia are key U.S. allies facing China, and the U.S. and U.K. work together to arm Ukraine. But when it comes to Israel, the U.K. has recently taken some actions that differ from its ally.
INSKEEP: Which NPR's Lauren Frayer is following from our bureau in London. Lauren, welcome.
LAUREN FRAYER, BYLINE: Thanks for having me, Steve.
INSKEEP: So what's changing in this relationship?
FRAYER: Well, there's been a change of government here. Conservatives were in charge of the U.K. for the past 14 years. That is until July when Keir Starmer's center-left Labour Party won an election and took over. Now, Starmer's politics are pretty closely aligned with the Biden and a prospective Harris administration. And so the U.S. is now like, game on - we finally have a likeminded partner here. But then a week ago today, there was a bit of a divergence.
INSKEEP: Which was what?
FRAYER: So the U.K. suspended some of its arms exports to its ally Israel. The U.S. also at one point withheld and then resumed shipments of some big bombs to Israel. But the U.K. cited Israel's conduct in Gaza, said there's a risk that Israel might use British-made weapons to violate international humanitarian law. Israel, of course, denies breaking any laws with its military offensive in Gaza. But Starmer has done a couple of other things as well. He restored funding to the U.N. aid agency helping Palestinians. His government has said it will not interfere with the International Criminal Court's efforts to request arrest warrants for Israeli officials. So all of those things put Starmer's foreign policy on a slightly different track than Washington's, and they could come up in Blinken's meetings here.
INSKEEP: Well, given those differences in approach, what are the two sides saying about this visit by Antony Blinken?
FRAYER: They are not calling this a crisis trip, not at all, just the opposite. The State Department says he's here to reaffirm the special relationship. I mean, case in point, this weekend, the head of the CIA and the head of Britain's MI6 intelligence agency did a public event together. This is unprecedented.
INSKEEP: Yeah.
FRAYER: Here's what CIA Director Bill Burns said - this was at a Financial Times conference - talking about U.S.-U.K. intelligence sharing.
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WILLIAM BURNS: This is a moment when those partnerships, in a very complicated and contested world, matters more than ever.
FRAYER: And the spy chiefs together also talked at that conference about what they've learned through intelligence sharing. They said that Ukraine's offensive inside Russia's Kursk region has rattled Russian elites - that's what they're picking up - that it could be a game changer. They also talked about new Gaza cease-fire proposals being prepared within days.
INSKEEP: OK. So they said this is not a crisis visit. That's fine. But CIA Director Bill Burns goes where there is a crisis. He shows up in Afghanistan. He shows up in Moscow, various places like that over the years. Now he goes to London, then Blinken is on his way, so why so much focus on the U.K. now?
FRAYER: I mean, the U.K. had years of turmoil. Steve, you'll remember the Brexit years, the years of Boris Johnson. But the U.K. now looks like a really stable ally, especially at a time when we're seeing the far right surging in places like France and Germany. Starmer is actually heading to the White House later this week for his second visit in as many months. The backdrop is Russia's war in Ukraine and real threats to liberal democracy across the world. The U.S. and the U.K. say they're working together against those to defend democracy, and that's what these visits are about.
INSKEEP: NPR's Lauren Frayer is in London. Thanks as always for your reporting.
FRAYER: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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