NNA - American flags will fly at half-mast across the United States and on all US vessels, embassies, and other overseas facilities until sunset on Friday after President Joe Biden ordered them lowered in honour of the victims of the Highland Park, Illinois shooting which claimed six lives at an Independence Day celebration on Monday.

“As a mark of respect for the victims of the senseless acts of gun violence perpetrated on our Independence Day, July 4, 2022, in Highland Park, Illinois, by the authority vested in me as President of the United States by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, I hereby order that the flag of the United States shall be flown at half-staff ... until sunset, July 9, 2022,” Mr Biden wrote in a proclamation released by the White House on Tuesday.

In what has become a grim ritual, Mr Biden issued a similar proclamation after mass shootings took place in Uvalde, Texas and Buffalo, New York two months ago.

Mr Biden’s decision to order flags lowered in mourning comes as Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic Church, said in a telegram to Chicago’s archbishop that he is praying for the six who lost their lives in the Monday shooting, as well as for "healing and consolation to the injured and bereaved. 

Francis also called for all to "reject violence in all its forms and respect life in all its stages” in his message, which decried the "senseless shooting".—Independent 

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