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  • Vatican Fast Facts | CNN

    Vatican Fast Facts | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Here’s a look at the Vatican, also known as the Holy See, the spiritual and governing center of the Roman Catholic Church.

    The full name of the country is State of Vatican City.

    It stands on Vatican Hill in northwestern Rome, Italy west of the Tiber River. It is comprised of roughly 100 acres.

    Tall stone walls surround most of Vatican City.

    Historical documentation says that St. Peter was crucified at or near the Neronian Gardens on Vatican hill and buried at the foot of the hill directly under where the main altar of St. Peter’s Basilica now stands. Excavations at the basilica between 1940 and 1957 located the tomb believed to be St. Peter’s.

    Vatican City has its own pharmacy, post office, telephone system and media outlets. The population is 1,000 (2022 est.)

    The Vatican is an absolute monarchy. Full legislative, judicial and executive authority resides with the pope.

    The world’s second-largest Christian church after the Yamoussoukro Basilica in Cote d’Ivoire. St. Peter’s is not a cathedral, which is a bishop’s principal church. The pope is the bishop of Rome, and his cathedral church is in Rome.

    Built on the foundation of the first St. Peter’s, the new basilica took 120 years to complete. Masonry, sculpture, painting and mosaic work continued for nearly 200 years.

    The dome of the basilica was designed by Michelangelo.

    The church is shaped like a cross and is almost 650 feet long.

    In the grottoes, beneath the basilica, is a papal burial chamber.

    The Vatican Palaces consist of several connected buildings with over 1,000 rooms. Within the palaces there are apartments, chapels, museums, meeting rooms and government offices.

    The Palace of Sixtus V is the pope’s residence.

    The Vatican museums, archive, library, gardens and other offices make up the remainder of the palaces.

    A separate structure from the basilica, designed for the papal court, was commissioned by Pope Sixtus IV della Rovere.

    It is the site of the papal conclave and where elections for the new pope are held.

    It is one of the world’s most famous galleries of biblical art with the ceiling by Michelangelo, tapestries by Raphael and Rosselli’s Last Supper.

    320s – Construction begins on the first St. Peter’s, by order of Constantine the Great.

    1473-1481 – The Sistine Chapel is constructed.

    April 18, 1506 – Pope Nicholas V begins rebuilding and expanding St. Peter’s Basilica.

    1508-1512 – Michelangelo paints the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

    February 11, 1929 – The signing of the Lateran Pacts between the Holy See and Italy establishes Vatican City State, the smallest independent nation in the world, covering only 109 acres.

    June 7, 1929 – The Treaty of the Lateran is ratified. Pope Pius XI gives up all claims to the Papal States, and Italy agrees to the establishment of the independent State of Vatican City.

    October 11, 1962-November 21, 1964 – The 21st Ecumenical Council of the Roman Catholic Church, known as Vatican II, is held under orders of Pope John XXIII. The council included 2,700 clergymen from all walks of Christiandom looking to improve relations with the Catholic Church. By the end of the council there is a new pope, Paul VI, a new constitution for the Church and new reforms.

    June 2011 – Pope Benedict XVI sends the first Vatican tweet announcing the opening of a news site, “Dear Friends, I just launched News.va Praised be our Lord Jesus Christ! With my prayers and blessings, Benedictus XVI.”

    October 6, 2012 – The pope’s former butler Paolo Gabriele is convicted of aggravated theft for leaking confidential papal documents and sentenced to 18 months in prison. In December 2012, Gabriele is pardoned by the pope and released to his family.

    November 10, 2012 – Claudio Sciarpelletti, a computer technician, receives a two-month suspended sentence for leaking Vatican secrets to the media.

    May 2013 – Missio, a smartphone app, is launched by Pope Francis. The app provides Catholic news from the Vatican and around the world.

    November 24, 2013 – The Vatican exhibits the bones of a man long believed to be St. Peter, one of the founding fathers of the Christian church, for the first time.

    January 10, 2019 – The Holy See launches its official athletics team after receiving the blessing of the Italian Olympic Committee. Among the first members of the Vatican Athletics track team are nuns, priests, Swiss Guards, museum workers, carpenters and maintenance workers.

    March 2, 2020 – The Vatican opens its secret archives containing World War II-era documents from the controversial papacy of Pope Pius XII.

    December 24, 2020 – Due to Covid-19 restrictions, the pope holds a sparsely attended Christmas Eve mass with only 200 people in attendance, including 30 cardinals. The Christmas Eve mass, which usually attracts up to 10,000 people, is a landmark event in Vatican City.

    July 3, 2021 – The Vatican releases a statement saying that it has indicted 10 people, including an Italian cardinal, for several alleged financial crimes including extortion, corruption, fraud, forgery, embezzlement and abuse of power. The investigation, which started in July 2019, was carried out by the Vatican in cooperation with Italian authorities and revealed “a vast network of ties between financial market operators who generated substantial losses for the Vatican finances.” In December 2023, Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu is sentenced to five and a half years in prison for his role in financial crimes. Others indicted are convicted on some counts and acquitted on others. One, Monsignor Mauro Carlino, former secretary to Becciu, is acquitted on all counts.

    June 22, 2023 – The Vatican announces it will hand over evidence in the disappearance of a 15-year-old daughter of one of its employees 40 years ago to the Rome city prosecutor. Emanuela Orlandi, who was the daughter of a prominent Vatican employee and lived within the walls of the holy city, disappeared in the summer of 1983 while on her way home from a music lesson in central Rome. The Vatican – which has come under scrutiny over the years for its handling of the case – announced in January that it had opened a fresh investigation.

    November 16, 2023 – The Vatican announces that, as part of a move to reduce its carbon emissions, it will gradually electrify its fleet of vehicles. The Holy See also pledges to build a charging network within Vatican City and in other areas it controls. The city state plans to ensure that electricity for its charging network comes from renewable sources.

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  • Why is Japan seeking the dissolution of the controversial Unification Church? | CNN

    Why is Japan seeking the dissolution of the controversial Unification Church? | CNN

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    Tokyo, Japan
    CNN
     — 

    Japan’s government on Friday asked a court to order the dissolution of the Unification Church branch in Japan following the assassination of former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe in July 2022.

    The government’s move comes after a months-long probe into the church, formally known in Japan as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification.

    The investigation followed claims by the suspected shooter, Tetsuya Yamagami, that he fatally shot Abe because he believed the leader was associated with the church, which Yamagami blamed for bankrupting his family through the excessive donations of his mother, a member.

    Earlier in January, Japanese prosecutors indicted Yamagami on murder and firearm charges.

    The government’s investigation concluded that the group’s practices – including fund-raising activities that allegedly pressured followers to make exorbitant donations – violated the 1951 Religious Corporations Act.

    That law allows Japanese courts to order the dissolution of a religious group if it has committed an act “clearly found to harm public welfare substantially.”

    The Tokyo District Court will now make a judgment based on the evidence submitted by the government, according to Japan’s public broadcaster NHK.

    This is the third time the Japanese government has sought a dissolution order for a religious group accused of violating the act.

    It also sought to dissolve the Aum Shinrikyo cult, after some of its members carried out a deadly 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system, which left dozens dead and thousands injured, and Myokaku-ji Temple, whose priests defrauded people by charging them for exorcisms. The courts ruled with the government on both orders.

    The Unification Church in Japan has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, pledging reform and labeling the news coverage against it as “biased” and “fake.”

    On Thursday, it issued a statement, saying it was “very regrettable” that the government was seeking the dissolution order, particularly as it had been “working on reforming the church” since 2009. It added that it would make legal counterarguments against the order in court.

    If disbanded, the Unification Church, founded by the Reverend Sun Myung Moon in South Korea in 1954, would lose its status as a religious corporation in Japan and be deprived of tax benefits. However, it could still operate as a corporate entity.

    Experts argue that an order to disband the group completely could take years to process and could even risk pushing the entity’s activities underground.

    Police have theory about what motivated Shinzo Abe murder suspect

    The Unification Church became known worldwide for mass weddings, in which thousands of couples get married simultaneously, with some brides and grooms meeting their betrothed for the first time on their wedding day.

    Public scrutiny of the church in Japan increased after Abe was fatally shot during an election campaign speech last July.

    Abe’s alleged assailant told police that his family had been ruined because of the huge donations his mother made to a religious group, which he alleged had close ties to the late former prime minister, according to NHK.

    A spokesperson for the Unification Church confirmed to reporters in Tokyo that the suspect’s mother was a member, Reuters reported, but said neither Abe nor the suspected killer were members.

    Following Abe’s death local media carried a series of reports claiming various other lawmakers of the country’s ruling party had links to the church, prompting Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to order an investigation.

    Kishida told reporters Thursday that ruling party lawmakers had cut ties with the religious group, amid concerns that the Unification Church had been trying to wield political influence.

    Since last November, Japan’s Ministry of Cultural Affairs has questioned and sought to obtain documents from the Unification Church while also collecting testimonies from around 170 people who say they were pressured into making massive donations known in Japan as “spiritual sales.”

    The practice involves asking followers to buy objects like urns and amulets on the grounds that doing so will appease their ancestors and save future generations, according to Yoshihide Sakurai, a religious studies expert at Hokkaido University.

    CNN has contacted the Unification Church for an official comment but has not yet heard back.

    This is not the first time the Unification Church has been at the center of a controversy.

    Naomi Honma, a former Unification Church member, told CNN that between 1991 and 2003, she worked on a legal case called “Give Us Back Our Youth,” a lawsuit that alleged the Unification Church had used deceptive and manipulative techniques to recruit unsuspecting members of the public.

    This, they argued, had the potential to violate the freedom of thought and conscience upheld by Article 20 of Japan’s constitution.

    After a 14-year trial, multiple plaintiff testimonies and a 999-page report outlining the “mind control” process of the group, the trial had its moment.

    The Sapporo District Court made a landmark ruling in favor of 20 former Unification Church members who had sued the group as part of the case. It ordered the Unification Church to pay roughly 29.5 million yen ($200,000) in damages for recruiting and indoctrinating people “while hiding the church’s true identity” and for “coercing some former members into purchasing expensive items and donating large amounts of money.”

    In a separate controversy, between 1987 and 2021, the Unification Church in Japan incurred claims for damages over the sale of amulets and urns that totaled around $1 billion, according to the National Lawyers Network against Spiritual Sales – a group established in 1987 specifically to oppose the Unification Church.

    Nobutaka Inoue, an expert on contemporary Japanese religion at Kokugakuin University, is critical of the techniques used by the church to recruit and raise funds. However, he also notes that some of its members felt happy and at peace after making donations to the Unification Church.

    Some critics of the Unification Church say the government’s actions don’t go far enough as it could still operate as a non-religious group. One option for the government would be to seek a court order stripping the church of its corporate status, too, but experts say that could take up to two years to process.

    Sakurai, the religious studies expert, cautioned that if the Unification Church loses its status as a religious corporation, it would no longer be under the control of Japan’s Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs, making it harder to regulate its activities.

    Sakurai pointed to the case of Aum, noting that after the sarin gas attack the Japanese government revoked recognition of the group as a religious organization but continued to regulate it through a new law passed in 1999 that authorized continued police surveillance of its activities.

    But making a new law that would allow the government to continue to watch over the Unification Church’s activities – even if one could be passed – would not work as well, Sakurai warned.

    “(Aum) only numbers over 1,200 members or so; however, the Unification Church has penetrated many layers of Japan’s society – some members are housewives, some work in factories, others are teachers, so the police cannot watch all the movements or activities of the Unification Church,” Sakurai said.

    Some experts say Japan needs to do more to educate the public about non-traditional religions, which some see as having a rising influence in society.

    Kimiaki Nishida, a social psychologist and chairman of the Japan Society for Cult Prevention and Recovery (JSCPR), pointed out that state and religion were separated in Japan following World War II, and the new constitution forbade teaching religious studies at school.

    This made religion essentially a taboo topic, Nishida said, and to this day, religious education is not provided at elementary, junior, or high schools in Japan, unlike in most EU member states.

    This, according to Toshiyuki Tachikake, a professor at Osaka University specializing in cult countermeasures since 2009, has left students – particularly at university campuses – vulnerable to being pressured into recruitment.

    He and other experts say more should be done to educate young Japanese about religion.

    “We need religious education in schools. Giving someone a broad understanding of different religions and their teachings allows them to make an informed decision on whether they want to join a certain group if a recruiter ever approached them,” said Tachikake.

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  • Gaza conditions worsen amid warnings that shortages could ‘kill many, many people’ | CNN

    Gaza conditions worsen amid warnings that shortages could ‘kill many, many people’ | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Shortages of food, fuel and electricity in Gaza “are going to kill many, many people,” a senior aid official warned Friday, as Israel’s siege and bombardment of the enclave approached the two-week mark, while life-saving aid was again stuck in Egypt for another day.

    A spokesperson for the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza said Friday that seven hospitals and 21 primary care health centers had been rendered “out of service,” and 64 medical staff have been killed, as Israel continues its airstrikes on Gaza.

    “It is absolutely life or death at this point,” Avril Benoit, executive director for Doctors Without Borders, also known as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), told CNN.

    Among those trapped in Gaza are the hostages captured by Hamas during its brutal terror attack on October 7. In an update Friday the Israel Defense Forces said the majority of the hostages are alive. It said the number of missing is between 100-200, and more than 20 of the hostages are under the age of 18.

    Meanwhile, Israeli leaders have rallied troops ahead of a potential ground incursion. The IDF has mobilized more than 300,000 reservists as it seeks to “destroy” Hamas and prevent it from launching further attacks on Israeli soil.

    In a speech from the Oval Office Thursday, US President Joe Biden reiterated his government’s support for Israel’s war against Hamas, casting it as vital to America’s national security. But he cautioned the Israeli government not to be “blinded by rage” and drew a clear distinction between Hamas and the Palestinian people, calling for civilians in Gaza to be protected.

    Any Israeli ground incursion will come amid a growing chorus of outrage across the Arab world, where mass anti-Israel protests have broken out earlier in the week and on Friday in support of 2.2 million Palestinians who remain trapped in Gaza.

    United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned the Middle East had entered “a moment of profound crisis… unlike any the region has seen in decades.”

    Israeli leaders on Friday ordered the evacuation of some 23,000 residents living near the border with Lebanon, amid sustained crossfire with the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah. IDF spokesperson Lt. Col. Peter Lerner told CNN that the IDF had bolstered its forces along the northern border and was prepared for a “broader conflict.”

    Around 200 trucks carrying vital aid destined for Gaza remain stuck in Egypt, despite a frantic diplomatic effort to open the Rafah crossing. Negotiations continued through Thursday as workers filled dangerous road craters from Israeli bombing to allow up to 20 trucks to pass in an initial delivery.

    Video released Friday by the Sinai Foundation for Human Rights showed “repair work and paving the road between the Egyptian and Palestinian sides” at the Rafah crossing. Egyptian authorities worked to remove cement blocks at the entrance to the crossing in preparation for its opening, several drivers at the crossing told CNN.

    But the possible initial passage of 20 trucks would be far lower than usual. “We need to build up to the 100 trucks a day that used to be the case of the aid program going into Gaza,” UN relief chief Martin Griffiths said in an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour.

    “We need to be able to have the assurance that we can go in at scale everyday – deliberately, repetitively and reliably,” Griffiths said.

    Guterres traveled to the Rafah crossing on Friday as part of the UN’s efforts to help aid reach Gaza.

    “Behind these walls, we have two million people that are suffering enormously. So, these trucks are not just trucks, they are a lifeline. They are the difference between life and death,” Guterres said at a press conference held on the Egyptian side of the border.

    A CNN team on the ground attended the press conference and witnessed a protest by several hundred demonstrators break out after Guterres finished his speech. Guterres was then forced to leave the Rafah gate earlier than planned as the protest began to get out of control.

    As well as the trucks, a plane carrying World Health Organization supplies for Gaza landed in Egypt’s Al Arish airport Friday morning, the WHO regional office wrote on X. It said the package included “surgical supplies and instruments for 1000 medical operations, water tanks and tents.”

    But how much difference the initial deliveries will be able to make for the more than 2 million people living in Gaza is unclear. A group of UN independent experts accused Israel of committing “crimes against humanity” in its current campaign.

    “The complete siege of Gaza coupled with unfeasible evacuation orders and forcible population transfers, is a violation of international humanitarian and criminal law. It is also unspeakably cruel,” the UN Human Rights Office said Thursday in a press release.

    Doctors Without Borders said Thursday Gaza’s main medical facility, the Al-Shifa Hospital, only had enough fuel to last 24 hours.

    “Without electricity many patients will die,” said Guillemette Thomas, the group’s medical coordinator for Palestine, based in Jerusalem. Thousands of Palestinians are using Al-Shifa hospital as a safe haven from constant bombing, he added.

    Many supermarkets have no more food to sell, and everyday tasks have become grueling for residents who queue for hours for food and water under the roar of airstrikes.

    “There is no life now… It’s just trying to survive. That’s it,” a Palestinian man living in Gaza, who wished to remain anonymous, told CNN.

    The population of southern Gaza has swelled in recent days after the Israeli military told around 1 million residents to leave northern Gaza ahead of the expected Israeli ground incursion.

    A Palestinian boy carrying water walks past a destroyed house in Rafah, October 18, 2023.

    Israel’s sustained assault on Gaza follows Hamas’ murderous rampage on October 7 that killed an estimated 1,400 people in Israel, mostly civilians, in what has been described as the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.

    In the days since, Israeli airstrikes have killed more than 4,100 people in Gaza, including hundreds of women and children, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas.

    The violence has spread beyond Gaza: The ministry said at least 81 people had been killed in the occupied West Bank since October 7. Israel also arrested more than 60 suspected Hamas operatives in the West Bank early Thursday.

    Among those detained during raids was Hamas spokesperson Hassan Yousef, Israeli authorities confirmed Friday. Yousef is a leading Palestinian political figure serving as the official Hamas spokesperson in the West Bank and holding a seat on the Palestinian Legislative Council.

    Meanwhile, Israel appears set to launch its ground offensive into Gaza. Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant told troops gathered not far from the Gaza Strip on Thursday that they will “soon see” the enclave “from the inside.”

    Early Friday morning, CNN’s Nic Robertson witnessed increased military activity along Israel’s border with Gaza. Several illumination flares were seen floating down in the distance while red tracer rounds were accompanied by the sound of heavy machine gun fire. CNN could not verify what the night-time military activity was.

    A bakery prepares rations of bread to pass out to internally displaced Palestinians in the southern Gaza Strip on October 17, 2023.

    Any Israeli incursion will further inflame the outrage that has spread across much of the Arab world. Huge protests broke out in several Middle Eastern countries this week after an explosion at the Al-Ahli hospital in southern Gaza, which Hamas officials said was caused by an Israeli airstrike that had killed 500 people.

    Thousands of protesters shouting anti-Israel slogans gathered in Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Egypt and Tunisia. Several Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Iraq issued statements condemning Israel and accusing its military of bombing the hospital.

    But Israel has since presented evidence that it said shows the blast was caused by a misfire by militant group Islamic Jihad. US President Joe Biden backed Israel’s explanation, citing US intelligence.

    “Israel Probably Did Not Bomb Gaza Strip Hospital: We judge that Israel was not responsible for an explosion that killed hundreds of civilians yesterday [17 October] at the Al Ahli Hospital in the Gaza Strip,” read an unclassified intelligence assessment obtained by CNN. The assessment also estimated the number of deaths was at the “low end of the 100-to-300 spectrum.”

    But the subsequent revelations have done little to quell the rage across the Middle East.

    “Everybody here believes that Israel is responsible for it,” Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi told CNN Wednesday. “The Israeli army is saying it’s not but… try and find anybody who’s going to believe it in this part of the world.”

    Fresh protests began Friday, with thousands taking to the streets in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen and the West Bank after Islamic Friday prayers.

    People inspect an area around the Greek Orthodox Church after an Israeli strike in Gaza City, on October 20.

    The protests began in the wake of a separate explosion at Gaza’s oldest church. St. Porphyrius Greek Orthodox Church in central Gaza City said its compound was hit by an Israeli airstrike Thursday night.

    Video from the ground in Gaza City showed the damage at the site of the church and its surrounding area. The main impact of the strike heavily damaged a building next to the church compound. One church building was partially collapsed by the airstrike, according to CNN’s analysis of the video.

    The footage from the ground also shows people working to search through rubble for any bodies. At one point, a group can be seen dragging a body wrapped in a blanket out of the rubble and through a small crowd, as many pull out their cameras and phones to record the moment. Other people can be seen grieving and crying.

    Earlier Friday, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said that 17 people were killed in the Israeli strike on the church on Thursday night. CNN cannot independently confirm the number of casualties. A Hamas statement about the incident mentioned “a number of casualties” but did say how many.

    The IDF has said it will have more information on the strike, but it did not respond to CNN questions on when that information would be available. The IDF on Friday acknowledged that “a wall of a church in the area was damaged” as a result of an IDF strike.

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  • 11 killed after Mexico church roof collapses | CNN

    11 killed after Mexico church roof collapses | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    At least 11 people were killed and two people seriously injured on Sunday after the roof of a church in northern Mexico collapsed, officials said.

    Preliminary reports indicate that about 100 people were inside the building in Ciudad Madero at the time of the incident, according to a statement from security services in the state of Tamaulipas. Thirty people were believed to be buried in the rubble, Reuters reported.

    At least 60 people were injured, with two people sustaining serious injuries, Tamaulipas security spokesperson said.

    Units from the National Guard, State Guard, Civil Protection and the Red Cross were assisting in the rescue operation.

    Bishop Jose Armando Alvarez, from the diocese of Tampico, said the roof of the church collapsed while worshipers were taking communion, Reuters reported. He urged other members of the community to pray for survivors.

    “In this moment the necessary work is being carried out to pull out the people who are still under the rubble,” Bishop Armando said in a recorded message shared on social media, according to Reuters.

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  • Overnight Russian strikes on Odesa cause significant structural damage, destroy church | CNN

    Overnight Russian strikes on Odesa cause significant structural damage, destroy church | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Russian strikes on Odesa overnight damaged at least at least six residential buildings, a Ukrainian Orthodox Church and “architectural monuments,” according to Ukraine’s southern Operational Command.

    “Dozens of cars were damaged, facades and roofs of many buildings in the city were damaged and windows were blown out,” it said in a statement on Telegram.

    “Several craters have been formed in the city. There are power outages, which may hamper traffic and the route of public transport may be changed.”

    The strikes on Saturday night killed at least one person, the statement said, and left at least 19 hurt.

    “Another 19 people including four children were injured. Eleven adults and three children were hospitalized while the rest are being treated on an outpatient basis,” the statement said.

    Ukraine has been struggling in the past week to repel a wave of Russian strikes against Odesa – its air defenses unable to cope with the types of missiles that Moscow has used to pummel the region.

    By Friday residents endured at least four nights of bombardment.

    A CNN team on the ground began hearing explosions on Thursday, with near continuous strikes lasting at least 90 minutes – followed by air raid sirens on Friday as Russian troops fired more missiles from the Black Sea.

    In a statement on Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned Moscow’s latest strikes on Odesa.

    “Missiles against peaceful cities, against residential buildings, a cathedral… There can be no excuse for Russian evil,” Zelensky said. “As always, this evil will lose and there will definitely be a retaliation to Russian terrorists for Odesa. They will feel this retaliation,” he said, adding that those injured were being provided with medical assistance.

    “I am grateful to everyone who is helping people and to everyone who is with Odesa in their thoughts and emotions. We will get through this. We will restore peace. And for this, we must defeat the Russian evil.”

    His words come as local military commanders reported at least two deaths following Russian overnight strikes in the Kharkhiv region, among them a 57-year-old woman and 45-year-old man killed in the Dvorichna district by shelling.

    “Over the past day, the enemy has been massively shelling settlements in Kharkiv, Chuhuiv, Kupyansk and Izium districts with artillery, mortars and aircraft,” Oleh Syniehubov, head of the Kharkiv region military administration, said on Telegram.

    Civilian industry buildings including at least three houses and outbuildings were also damaged as a result of the attacks on Kupyansk with rocket launchers, cannon artillery and mortars.

    “Our defenders are holding their positions in the Kupyansk sector. The enemy has made no progress,” Syniehubov said.

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  • Southern Baptist Convention votes to uphold removal of Saddleback Church over women pastors after appeal by Rick Warren | CNN

    Southern Baptist Convention votes to uphold removal of Saddleback Church over women pastors after appeal by Rick Warren | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    The annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention voted to affirm a decision made earlier this year to remove Saddleback Church, a major southern California congregation founded by the pastor and author Rick Warren, due to its having women pastors.

    Representatives at the conference in New Orleans overwhelmingly supported the decision to expel the church, according to the vote count reported Wednesday morning, despite pleas a day earlier by Warren, the author of “The Purpose Driven Life.” The representatives, known as messengers, also voted to affirm the ousters of two other churches, including Fern Creek in Louisville, Kentucky, which has had a female pastor since 1993.

    The vote to uphold those removals came just a few hours before a two-thirds majority of the Southern Baptist Convention – the largest Protestant denomination in the United States – separately voted to approve an amendment to its constitution that would more broadly prohibit churches from having women hold any pastoral title.

    The amendment must pass by a two-thirds vote two years in a row, with Wednesday’s vote marking its first.

    The Baptist Press, which describes itself as the SBC’s official news service, reported Saddleback was found “not to be in friendly cooperation” with the SBC’s “statement of faith,” which says in part that “the office of pastor is limited to men.”

    Warren was among those who asked the SBC to reverse the February decision on Tuesday. He appealed to the representatives to “act like Southern Baptists who have historically ‘agreed to disagree’ on dozens of doctrines in order to share a common mission,” per the Times, which reported Warren appointed a husband and wife to succeed him after his retirement in 2021. Three more women were ordained as pastors at Saddleback that year, according to Baptist Press.

    Voters were unconvinced: Per the Baptist Press, 9,437 votes were cast in favor of upholding the decision, compared to 1,212 against. Fern Creek Baptist’s appeal was similarly rejected, with 9,700 voting in favor of upholding the decision and 806 voting against.

    CNN has reached out to the SBC, Saddleback Church and Fern Creek Baptist for comment.

    The ousting of a third church, Freedom Church in Vero Beach, Florida, was also upheld. That church was expelled for a separate reason unrelated to the question of female pastors.

    Churches not found in friendly cooperation effectively lose their affiliation with the wider convention, though they could still operate congregations.

    The fight at one of the nation’s most important evangelical bellwethers is playing out against the backdrop of broader political and cultural battles over the rights of women and LGBTQ people.

    In the wake of the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade, an energized, conservative faction within the GOP has pushed for strict abortion restrictions and limits on gender-affirming care for transgender people in statehouses across the country. That push has also triggered a backlash among the broader electorate, with Democrats notching victories in competitive 2022 midterm races and 2023 elections where those cultural clashes have taken center stage.

    Andy Wood, who currently pastors Saddleback Church, pushed back after the SBC’s decision to remove the church in a video in March, noting that all the church’s elders were men but that they could “empower women and mobilize women to use their spiritual gifts in the local church.”

    “This is a historic moment,” Wood said. “The church at large, the global church is looking for good Bible believing examples of empowering women for ministry. So Saddleback, we want to lead the way in that conversation.”

    “If we can be a part of mobilizing and empowering a whole generation of women, we would love nothing more than to lean into that conversation and empower women for ministry.”

    The proposed amendment taken up Wednesday would add a qualification to Article III of the SBC Constitution, saying churches will be considered in friendly cooperation only if they do “not affirm, appoint, or employ a woman as a pastor of any kind.”

    Mike Law, the pastor of Arlington Baptist Church in Arlington, Virginia, has identified himself as the person who introduced the amendment. In a video, he explained the goal was to “encourage Southern Baptists to keep in step with the spirit and the scriptures on the subject of the Pastoral office.

    “The Baptist faith and message announces our belief that the office of Pastor is limited to men as qualified by scripture, and this amendment would clarify that our cooperation as churches is in accord with this particular belief.”

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  • Karakorum: Mongolia’s ancient capital is a cultural delight | CNN

    Karakorum: Mongolia’s ancient capital is a cultural delight | CNN

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    Editor’s Note: This CNN Travel series is, or was, sponsored by the country it highlights. CNN retains full editorial control over subject matter, reporting and frequency of the articles and videos within the sponsorship, in compliance with our policy.


    Karakorum, Mongolia
    CNN
     — 

    Karakorum is known by many names and even more reputations. Once the home of the world’s most famous Khan, this ancient city quickly became one of the Silk Road’s most important – and progressive – convergence points.

    Located in Mongolia’s Övörkhangai province, Karakorum and its surrounding landscapes are among the best places to visit in Mongolia today.

    Located just 350 kilometers from Ulaanbaatar, the country’s modern-day capital city, the road to Karakorum is an essential drive on any Mongolia travel itinerary not only for its beauty, but for its history.

    It’s this same East meets West route that was once traveled by Turks, Chinese, Uighurs, Sogdians, Hungarians, Greeks, Armenians, Alans and Georgians. By diplomats, traders, artisans and merchants all looking to trade silk, spices, tea, ivory, cotton, wool and precious metals, as well as ideas.

    Because of this, Karakorum quickly became a place where cultures would intertwine and learn to live in harmony with one another. Despite many of the connotations about Genghis Khan and his empire many of us hold today, Karakorum was a city built on understanding and acceptance.

    It was a place where different religious practices were accepted, with at least 12 different pagan temples, two mosques, a church and at least one Buddhist temple located inside the city’s walls.

    The city’s glory was, however, short lived. Kublai Khan eventually moved the empire’s capital to Beijing only 50 years after development first began. With harsh temperatures and a vulnerability to attacks, the city’s inhabitants didn’t stay around for long after that, and Karakorum quickly turned into a pile of rubble.

    The Karakorum we see today may be nothing like it was in the days of the Great Khan, but with a recent vow from the president of Mongolia to revitalize this culturally significant city in the coming years, there’s a brighter future on the horizon.

    Until then, there are still plenty of reasons to visit.

    As a country with a nomadic culture Mongolia doesn’t have many traces of its past still standing. Even today, much of the Mongol’s history as one of the largest and most powerful empires in the world is a mystery still being pieced together.

    Besides “The Secret History of the Mongols,” not many written accounts from the Mongolian Empire, as told by Mongols, remain. Archeological sites around Karakorum are still filling in many blanks.

    Excavations in and around Karakorum have discovered paved roads, remains of brick and adobe buildings, floor-heating systems, bed stoves, evidence of the processing of copper, gold, silver, iron, glass, jewels, bones and birch bark, as well as coins from China and Central Asia, ceramics and four kilns.

    Many of these discoveries, and the stories around them, can be found in the Karakorum Museum, a sleek and modern attraction in the heart of the city.

    None of the artifacts and exhibitions, however, are as enthralling as the tale of the Silver Tree – a once ornate fountain that was the centerpiece of the Mongol capital.

    According to the legend, the tree was adorned with silver fruit and flowing with various alcoholic drinks, including wine, fermented mare’s milk (airag), rice wine and honey mead, all for the grandsons of Genghis Khan and his invited guests.

    The Silver Tree hasn’t been discovered and was most likely dismantled during one of the city’s raids, but the tale of it is enough to fill our own cups just like it once did those of the Mongol royals.

    The Erdene Zuu Monatary is one of Mongolia's most sacred spaces.

    Back in 1585 when Karakorum was abandoned and falling into ruin, the city’s salvation came in the form of a Buddhist monastery commissioned by the then Khalkha-Mongolian prince.

    It was the prince’s meeting with the third Dalai Lama, and his declaration of Tibetan Buddhism as the state religion of Mongolia, that would make Erdene Zuu Monastery the first Buddhist monastery in Mongolia.

    During the Soviet purges of the 1930s, Stalin himself saved a few of the main temples from being destroyed, calling them symbols of religious freedom. The monastery complex was eventually converted into a museum.

    After the fall of the Soviet Union, the monastery again became active, but nothing like its former days. At its peak, the monastery was home to more than 100 temples, around 300 yurts, and 1,000 monks in residence.

    Today, Erdene Zuu Monastery is one of Mongolia’s most sacred Buddhist temples, with Buddhist-practicing Mongols vowing to visit the complex at least once in their lives.

    The Laviran Temple at the back of the complex is where monks can be found chanting, practicing musical instruments and providing sacred readings daily.

    The Erdenesiin Khuree Mongolian Calligraphy Center recently expanded and now offers more workshops and exhbitions.

    Another Karakorum highlight is the Erdenesiin Khuree Mongolian Calligraphy Center – among the best reasons to visit Mongolia, especially this summer.

    With a recent expansion and the ability to offer a wider array of workshops and exhibitions that go beyond Mongolian calligraphy, the center focuses on promoting all aspects of Mongolian heritage.

    Concerts featuring traditional Mongolian music as well as masterclasses on khoomei, or traditional Mongolian throat singing, will be held throughout the summer.

    In September, the center plans to open a ceramic workshop.

    The new Silver Tree Guest House offers a variety of sleeping options including traditional yurts.

    While Karakorum is often considered a stop along the route to somewhere else, this culturally rich city deserves closer attention. Visitors should plan to spend at least two days exploring this ancient area, booking at least one night at one of these hotels, guesthouses or tourist ger (yurt) camps.

    The modern and clean Ikh Khorum Hotel and Restaurant stands out as one of the city’s most elegant choices. The hotel features 27 rooms, a sauna, restaurant, bar and lounge. The hotel is within walking distance to Erdene Zuu Monastery, Karakorum Museum, and the Erdenesiin Khuree Calligraphy Center.

    While Silver Tree Guest House is still in its opening phases, staying here feels like you’ve been invited into someone’s home. And that’s also because it is. Silver Tree Guest House is a family-run guest house offering yurt stays, rooms with toilets and showers, and a restaurant that can accommodate both meat eaters and vegetable lovers.

    It’s also the first building in Mongolia to utilize a biogas heating system and can speak several languages, including English, French, Russian, Polish, and Mongolian.

    For the real yurt experience, Anja Camp makes the list as one of the best in Karakorum, offering ecologically healthy and natural meals from their three-season greenhouse as well as having a focus on environmental projects.

    The camp and its founders have started initiatives to grow sea buckthorn to stop soil erosion, using the trees to create creams, liqueurs, organic juice, organic oil, and – a Mongolian favorite – sea buckthorn tea. They also have a sister lodge in Elsen Tasarkhai, the Sweet Gobi Geolodge, an hour outside of Karakorum that’s worth checking into if you’re in the area.

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  • Man accused of stabbing imam at New Jersey mosque pleads not guilty to attempted murder charge | CNN

    Man accused of stabbing imam at New Jersey mosque pleads not guilty to attempted murder charge | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    The 32-year-old man accused of stabbing an imam at a mosque Sunday in New Jersey pleaded not guilty to an attempted murder charge in court Monday afternoon.

    Serif Zorba was arrested for allegedly stabbing Imam Sayed Elnakib of the Omar Mosque in Paterson. Elnakib, who is in stable condition, was stabbed during the first prayer of the day around 5:30 a.m. while the congregation was kneeling, mosque spokesperson Abdul Hamdan told CNN.

    Surveillance video of the incident shows a group of worshippers at the mosque positioned in five long rows. As they knelt down in prayer, a person wearing a hoodie in the third row moved to the front of the room, stepping over other worshippers, and then thrust his right hand into the back of the kneeling imam, the video shows.

    The congregation then rose together, and the assailant tried to push through the crowd and flee out of the back of the mosque, the video shows.

    Zorba was charged with first-degree attempted murder, third-degree possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, and fourth-degree unlawful possession of a weapon, according to a news release from the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office.

    Zorba, a native of Istanbul, also pleaded not guilty to the unlawful weapon possession charges. His plea was entered Monday by a public defender on Zorba’s behalf.

    The suspect appeared in court before Paterson Municipal Court Judge Vincenzo Stampone wearing an orange jumpsuit, with his long hair mostly covering his face. Zorba communicated with court officials through a Turkish translator.

    When Stampone asked Zorba about his current address, Zorba indicated that he lived in Paterson but did not offer a proper address.

    Zorba is being held on pretrial detention. His next court appearance is scheduled for Thursday.

    The prosecutor’s office said they could not provide any further details on Zorba’s possible motive, citing the ongoing investigation.

    The maximum sentence for his alleged crimes is around 26 years, according to the release.

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  • Dozens of rockets fired from Lebanon into Israel after raids on al-Aqsa mosque | CNN

    Dozens of rockets fired from Lebanon into Israel after raids on al-Aqsa mosque | CNN

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    Jerusalem
    CNN
     — 

    Dozens of rockets were fired from Lebanon into Israel on Thursday, the Israeli military said, in a major escalation that comes amid regional tensions over Israeli police raids at the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem.

    Some 34 rockets were launched from Lebanese territory into Israeli territory, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said, with the majority intercepted but six landing in Israel.

    It was the largest such attack since a 2006 war between the two countries left around 1,200 Lebanese people and 165 Israelis dead.

    Videos posted on social media showed rockets streaking through the skies over northern Israel, and the sounds of explosions in the distance.

    The country closed its northern airspace in the wake of the barrage. No deaths were reported, and it is not yet known which group in Lebanon launched the rockets.

    Israel said it would “decide on the place and time” of its response, an IDF defense official who asked not to be named told CNN. An Israeli military spokesman said they believed a Palestinian militant group was behind the attack, not the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

    The Lebanese army confirmed a number of a rockets were launched from the country’s south, but did not detail who had fired them. It said on Twitter that a unit had found “missile launchers and a number of rockets intended for launch” in the vicinity of the Lebanese towns of Zibqin and Qlaileh, and was “currently working to dismantle them.”

    Hezbollah has not yet commented on the incident. It comes a day after Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, arrived in Beirut for meetings with Hezbollah officials.

    Tensions are sky-high in the region after Israeli police stormed the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem on two separate occasions Wednesday, as Palestinian worshipers offered prayers during the holy month of Ramadan.

    Footage from inside the mosque showed Israeli officers beating people with their batons and rifle-butts, then arresting hundreds of Palestinians. Israeli police said they entered the mosque after “hundreds of rioters” tried to barricade themselves inside.

    The incident, which was met with widespread condemnation from the Arab and Muslim world, sparked retaliatory rocket fire from Gaza into Israel.

    Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi told CNN “we are at a very dangerous moment.”

    “What we see unfolding on the Lebanese border is obviously a consequence, a reaction to what we saw happening in al-Aqsa [mosque].” Safadi said.

    Trails from rockets can be seen over the skies of northern Israel in this video screengrab, as authorities raised concerns over increased tensions between Israel and Lebanon.

    Lebanon and Israel are considered enemy states, but a truce between them has largely held since the 2006 war.

    There have been several small-scale rocket attacks from Lebanon in recent years that have prompted retaliatory strikes from Israel. Few casualties were reported in those incidents, with the largest death toll in an exchange of fire in 2015 that left two Israeli soldiers and a Spanish peacekeeper dead. Palestinian factions in Lebanon were believed to be behind those rocket attacks.

    The 2006 conflict was the biggest flare-up between Lebanon and Israel since 1982. Around 1,200 Lebanese people and 165 Israelis died in an exchange of fire that involved a nationwide Israeli aerial assault, and a naval and aerial blockade. Hezbollah fired many rounds of rockets reaching deep into Israeli territory during the conflict.

    The Israeli military pinned the blame for the rockets on either Hamas or the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, with international spokesman Lt. Col. Richard Hecht saying the IDF assumed that “Hezbollah knew about it, and Lebanon also has responsibility.”

    But he emphasized several times that the IDF viewed the attack as having come from a Palestinian source, and that it did not represent a widening of the conflict to actors outside of the direct Israeli-Palestinian conflict, raising hopes that tensions could be ratcheted down after the incident.

    The Lebanese foreign ministry also said it was ready to cooperate with the United Nations and take steps to “restore calm and stability” in the south, while calling on “the international community to put pressure on Israel to stop escalation,” the state-owned National News Agency reported.

    The IDF has been concerned for some time about an escalation on the Lebanese border, and hosted a high-level seminar in the spring of 2022 to brief journalists and policy makers about it.

    The UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said Thursday’s escalation of violence between Lebanon and Israel was “extremely serious.”

    UNIFIL also said it has directed its personnel stationed at the border between the two countries to move to air raid shelters, as a “common practice.”

    The White House said it was “extremely concerned by the continuing violence and we urge all sides to avoid further escalation.”

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  • Israeli police storm al-Aqsa mosque during Ramadan prayers, sparking rocket fire from Gaza | CNN

    Israeli police storm al-Aqsa mosque during Ramadan prayers, sparking rocket fire from Gaza | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Israeli police stormed the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, one of Islam’s holiest sites, during Ramadan prayers early Wednesday, arresting hundreds of Palestinians and sparking retaliatory rocket fire from militants in Gaza.

    Footage shared on social media showed Israeli officers striking screaming people with batons inside the darkened building. Eyewitnesses told CNN that police had smashed doors and windows to enter the mosque and deployed stun grenades and rubber bullets once inside. Video shared by Israeli police show forces holding riot shields up as fireworks were launched back at them, ricocheting off the walls.

    Israeli police said in a statement that its forces entered al-Aqsa after “hundreds of rioters and mosque desecrators (had) barricaded themselves” inside.

    “When the police entered, stones were thrown at them, and fireworks were fired from inside the mosque by a large group of agitators,” according to the statement.

    The Palestinian Red Crescent in Jerusalem said at least 12 people were injured during clashes in and around the mosque, and at least three of the injured were transferred to hospital, some with injuries from rubber bullets.

    The Red Crescent added that at one point its ambulances were targeted by police and were prevented from reaching the injured.

    The incident drew condemnation from across the Arab and Muslim world. Jordan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the Israeli police actions “in the strongest terms,” and called on Israel to immediately remove its forces from the mosque. Egypt’s Foreign Ministry also condemned the “storming” of the mosque by police, saying it had caused “numerous injuries among worshipers and devotees” and was “in violation of all international laws and customs.”

    Police said they arrested and removed more than 350 people in the mosque, and that one Israeli police officer was wounded in the leg by stones.

    Images shared on social media showed dozens of detained people lying facedown on the floor of the mosque with their legs and arms bound behind their backs, and others with their hands tied being led into a vehicle.

    Al-Aqsa has seen hundreds of thousands of worshipers offer prayers during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan this year. Jews are set to celebrate Passover on Wednesday evening.

    Over the last two weeks, there have been calls by Jewish extremist groups to slaughter goats at the mosque compound as part of an ancient Passover holiday ritual that is no longer practiced by most Jews. A greater number of Muslim worshipers stayed in the mosque after calls came to prevent those attempts.

    Last week, a Palestinian man was shot and killed by Israeli police at the entrance of the compound. Palestinian and Israeli sources disputed the circumstances that led to the killing of 26-year-old Muhammad Al-Osaibi.

    The mosque compound, frequently a flashpoint in tensions, is home to one of Islam’s most revered sites but also the holiest site in Judaism, known as the Temple Mount.

    The compound reopened for prayers shortly after.

    In a statement Wednesday, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh condemned the actions of the Israeli police, saying: “What is happening in Jerusalem is a major crime against worshipers.”

    “Israel does not want to learn from history, that al-Aqsa is for the Palestinians and for all Arabs and Muslims, and that storming it sparked a revolution against the occupation,” Shtayyeh added.

    The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Wednesday that nine rockets were fired from Gaza Strip toward Israel after the incident in Jerusalem.

    “Following the previous report regarding the sirens which sounded in Sderot, five rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory,” said the IDF. “Four of them were intercepted by the aerial defense array.”

    The IDF also said four additional rockets launched from Gaza toward Israel but landed in open space.

    “Following the additional sirens that sounded in the surroundings of the Gaza Strip, four rockets were launched from the Gaza Strip that landed in open areas. No interceptors were launched according to protocol,” the IDF added.

    Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas, the militant group that runs Gaza, said in a statement that “the current Israeli occupation’s crimes at the al-Aqsa mosque are unprecedented violations that will not pass.”

    Later on Wednesday, the Israeli military said its fighter jets had struck weapons manufacturing and storage sites in the Gaza Strip belonging to Hamas.

    “This strike was carried out in response to rockets fired from the Gaza Strip toward Israeli territory earlier,” it said in a statement.

    Last year was the deadliest for both Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and for Israelis in nearly two decades, CNN analysis of official statistics on both sides showed.

    And this year has seen a violent beginning, too. At least 90 Palestinians have been killed, according to Palestinian Ministry of Health statistics. In addition to suspected militants being targeted by Israeli forces, the dead include Palestinians killing, wounding or attempting to kill Israeli civilians, people clashing with Israeli security and bystanders, CNN records show.

    In the same period, at least 15 Israelis have been killed in attacks by Palestinians in Israel and the West Bank, CNN records show – 14 civilians and a police officer who was hit by friendly fire after being stabbed by a Palestinian teenager while inspecting bus passengers.

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  • DOJ reaches tentative $144.5 million settlement with victims of Sutherland Springs church mass shooting | CNN

    DOJ reaches tentative $144.5 million settlement with victims of Sutherland Springs church mass shooting | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    The US Department of Justice on Wednesday announced it had reached an “agreement in principle” to settle claims from the November 2017 mass shooting at a Sutherland Springs, Texas, church for $144.5 million, according to a news release.

    A federal court in 2021 ruled the US government was liable for damages caused by the shooting, in which 26 people were killed and 22 others wounded. The Air Force, a judge concluded, failed to exercise reasonable care when it didn’t submit the shooter’s criminal history to the FBI’s background check system, which increased the risk of physical harm to the general public.

    A court must still approve some parts of the settlements, the DOJ release said.

    “No words or amount of money can diminish the immense tragedy of the mass shooting in Sutherland Springs,” Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta said. “Today’s announcement brings the litigation to a close, ending a painful chapter for the victims of this unthinkable crime.”

    This story is breaking and will be updated.

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  • Member of pro-Nazi group used Molotov cocktails in attempt to burn down Ohio church planning to host a drag event, FBI says | CNN

    Member of pro-Nazi group used Molotov cocktails in attempt to burn down Ohio church planning to host a drag event, FBI says | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    An member of a neo-Nazi group was arrested Friday after attempting to burn down a church in Ohio that was planning to host a drag show event, according to court documents.

    Aimenn D. Penny, 20, of Alliance, Ohio, has been charged in the U.S. District Court in Cleveland with one count of malicious use of explosive materials and one count of possessing a destructive device, according to a criminal complaint.

    Authorities claim Penny used “Molotov cocktails against the Community Church of Chesterland (CCC) in Chesterland, Ohio, in an attempt to burn the church to the ground,” the Department of Justice said in a press release.

    “As alleged in the charging documents, the defendant used an explosive device to cause harm to a church he found objectionable,” Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen said in the release. “It is the solemn duty of the Department of Justice to safeguard the right of all Americans to free expression, and I commend the work of law enforcement in this matter.”

    The FBI claims Penny is a member of “White Lives Matter,” a pro-Nazi group, according to an affidavit filed in court Friday. The FBI said the group has “racist, pro-Nazi, and homophobic views.”

    Penny confessed he attempted to burn down the church using Molotov cocktails, “to protect the children and stop the drag show event,” according to the criminal complaint.

    CNN has reached out to an attorney appointed to represent Penny but did not receive an immediate response. Penny made his initial appearance in federal court Friday and was remanded in custody. He is due to face a court hearing on Thursday, Michelle Sztul, the chief deputy clerk for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Cleveland, told CNN.

    The affidavit alleges the Ohio church was targeted in the early hours of Saturday, March 25. The FBI said the church was damaged by what appeared to be Molotov cocktails and had scorch marks on the front door, scorch marks on a sign on the exterior of the building and a broken sign on the southeast corner of the property.

    Investigators recovered broken glass pieces from a vodka bottle and a beer bottle each containing a cloth-type material, the affidavit said. A burnt matchstick and a blue plastic spray bottle filled with gasoline were found near the damaged door.

    Law enforcement agencies obtained a court order to collect historical location data from Penny’s cellphone after receiving a tip, the affidavit said. While searching Penny’s home, agents found a Nazi flag and other Nazi memorabilia, a handwritten note with ideological statements, a White Lives Matter of Ohio T-shirt, a gas mask, multiple rolls of blue painter’s tape and gas cans, the document says.

    The affidavit also said Penny traveled to Wadsworth, Ohio, on March 11, where he attended a drag queen story hour to “distribute propaganda flyers (sic)representing White Lives Matter Ohio’s anti-drag queen views.”

    The Community Church of Chesterland, located in Geauga County, went ahead with hosting the drag queen story hour and brunch event Saturday, the church’s minister told CNN.

    Rev. Jess Peacock said it’s not the first time the church has been targeted. They said representatives of the church have in recent weeks received hate mail and messages containing threats of protests and violence over planned drag events.

    “There hasn’t been a day or two where I have not received hate messages from my personal phone,” Peacock said.

    Peacock said they are “relieved” and “very pleased” over Friday’s arrest. No one was inside the church during the attempted firebombing and drag show events will go ahead there as planned, Peacock added.

    “We hold no ill will against this man whatsoever. We forgive this individual. But we do want this individual to be prosecuted to the fullest extent. Just to send a message and have them think twice about attacking a synagogue, a church or a mosque. We want to see peace, not violence,” Peacock said.

    First Assistant U.S. Attorney Michelle M. Baeppler for the Northern District of Ohio said, “Violence and destruction are never an acceptable way to express a disagreement with a particular viewpoint.”

    “While, as Americans, we enjoy the right to disagree, doing so peacefully is the only appropriate option,” Baeppler said.

    If convicted, Penny may face a mandatory minimum of five years and up to 20 years in prison for the malicious use of explosive materials charge and up to 10 years in prison for the possession of a destructive device charge, according to the DOJ.

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  • Palestinian man shot dead in disputed circumstances near Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa compound | CNN

    Palestinian man shot dead in disputed circumstances near Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa compound | CNN

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    Jerusalem
    CNN
     — 

    A Palestinian man was shot and killed by Israeli police early on Saturday at the entrance to the al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem, frequently a flashpoint in tensions between Israel and the Palestinians.

    Palestinian and Israeli sources disputed the circumstances that led to the killing of 26-year-old Muhammad Al-Osaibi at the compound, home to one of Islam’s most revered sites but also the holiest site in Judaism, known as the Temple Mount.

    A former Israeli lawmaker, Talab Al-Sanee, said Al-Osaibi was killed after he tried to intervene when he saw Israeli police and border guards assaulting a young Palestinian woman.

    Israeli police said the man had grabbed a gun from a police officer who had stopped him for questioning and managed to fire two shots before he was killed by police.

    Social media video apparently filmed at the time of the incident captured the sound of at least 11 gunshots – the first one followed almost immediately by nine in quick succession, then another one after a moment’s pause.

    Al-Osaibi’s family asked police to release security camera footage of the incident to prove “the allegations that their son pulled a soldier’s weapon.”

    A police spokeswoman told CNN there is no video of the incident.

    The incident came in the middle of Ramadan, which has passed largely peacefully in Jerusalem. The first two Fridays of the Muslim holy month have seen hundreds of thousands of worshippers offer prayers at al-Aqsa without incident.

    A large group of Muslim worshippers staged a mass prayer outside the holy site Saturday after the incident, video from the scene showed.

    Local authorities in Al-Osaibi’s native region of Rahat in the Negeb called for a general strike on Sunday in response to the killing.

    And Palestinian Authority presidency spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh warned in a statement against what he described as “the dangerous escalation by the Israeli occupation authorities,” calling the Israeli version of the killing of Al-Osaibi “fabricated.”

    The relative calm of Ramadan comes after a violent beginning to the year in Israel and the occupied West Bank.

    At least 90 Palestinians have been killed, according to Palestinian Ministry of Health statistics. In addition to suspected militants being targeted by Israeli forces, the dead include Palestinians killing, wounding or attempting to kill Israeli civilians, people clashing with Israeli security and bystanders, CNN records show.

    In the same period, at least 15 Israelis have been killed in attacks by Palestinians in Israel and the West Bank, CNN records show – 14 civilians and a police officer who was hit by friendly fire after being stabbed by a Palestinian teenager while inspecting bus passengers.

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  • Covenant School shooter was under care for emotional disorder and hid guns at home, police say | CNN

    Covenant School shooter was under care for emotional disorder and hid guns at home, police say | CNN

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    Editor’s Note: This story contains graphic descriptions of violence.



    CNN
     — 

    The 28-year-old who killed three children and three adults at a private Christian school in Nashville was under care for an emotional disorder and had legally bought seven firearms that were hidden at home, Metro Nashville Police Chief John Drake said Tuesday.

    The parents of the shooter, Audrey Hale, spoke to police and said they knew Hale had bought and sold one weapon and believed that was the extent of it.

    “The parents felt (Hale) should not own weapons,” the chief said.

    On Monday morning, Hale left home with a red bag, and the parents asked what was inside but were dismissed, Drake said.

    Three of the weapons were used in the attack Monday. Police also said Tuesday they did not know a motive.

    The shooter targeted the school and church in the attack but did not specifically target any of the six people killed, police spokesman Don Aaron said. He also said Hale’s writings mentioned a mall near the school as another possible target.

    Live updates: Nashville Covenant School shooting

    The news conference came a day after Hale, a former student at the Covenant School, stormed into the elementary school and killed six people before being fatally shot by responding police officers.

    The attack was the 19th shooting at an American school or university in 2023 in which at least one person was wounded, according to a CNN tally, and the deadliest since the May attack in Uvalde, Texas, left 21 dead. There have been 42 K-12 school shootings since Uvalde.

    The victims included three 9-year-old students: Evelyn Dieckhaus, William Kinney and Hallie Scruggs, the daughter of lead church pastor Chad Scruggs. Also killed were Cynthia Peak, 61, believed to be a substitute teacher; Katherine Koonce, the 60-year-old head of the school; and Mike Hill, a 61-year-old custodian, police said.

    Earlier Tuesday, police released body-camera footage from the two officers who rushed into the Covenant School on Monday and fatally shot the mass shooter.

    The footage is from the body-worn cameras of officers Rex Engelbert and Michael Collazo, who police said fatally shot the attacker on Monday at 10:27 a.m. The videos show a group of five officers entered the school amid wailing fire alarms and immediately went into several rooms to look for the suspect.

    They heard gunfire on the second floor and so hustled up the stairs as the bangs grew louder, the video shows. The officers approached the sound of gunfire and Engelbert, armed with an assault-style rifle, rounded a corner and fired multiple times at a person near a large window, who dropped to the ground, the video shows.

    Collazo then pushed forward and appeared to shoot the person on the ground four times with a handgun, yelling “Stop moving!” The officers finally approached the person, moved a gun away and then radioed “Suspect down! Suspect down!”

    The video adds further insight into the timeline of the shooting and the police response. The first 911 call about the shooting came in at 10:13 a.m., and the shooter was killed 14 minutes later, according to police. The bodycam footage of Engelbert entering the school and shooting the attacker lasts about three to four minutes.

    The Covenant school is a private Christian school educating about 200 students from Pre-K through 6th grade. The school is a ministry of Covenant Presbyterian Church, its website states.

    Nashville Mayor John Cooper told CNN the swift police response prevented further disaster.

    “It could have been worse without this great response,” the mayor of the police response. “This was very planned and numerous sites were investigated.”

    The police chief similarly praised the response as swift.

    “I was hoping this day would never ever come here in the city. But we will never wait to make entry and to go in and to stop a threat especially when it deals with our children,” Drake said in a Monday news conference.

    This undated picture provided by the Metro Nashville Police Department shows Audrey Elizabeth Hale.

    Police said the shooting was targeted, closely planned and outlined in documents from the shooter.

    Hale left writings pertaining to the shooting and had scouted a second possible attack location in Nashville, “but because of a threat assessment by the suspect – there’s too much security – decided not to,” Drake said on Monday.

    The shooter left behind “drawn out” maps of the school detailing “how this was all going to take place,” he added.

    The writings revealed the attack at the Christian school “was calculated and planned,” police said. The shooter was “someone that had multiple rounds of ammunition, prepared for confrontation with law enforcement, prepared to do more harm than was actually done,” Drake said.

    Three weapons – an AR-15, a Kel-Tec SUB 2000, and a handgun – were found at the school, he said. A search warrant executed at Hale’s home led to the seizure of a sawed-off shotgun, a second shotgun and other evidence, according to police.

    “They found a lot of documents. This was clearly planned,” Mayor Cooper said. “There was a lot of ammunition. There were guns.”

    Police have referred to Hale as a “female shooter,” and at an evening news conference added Hale was transgender. Hale used male pronouns on a social media profile, a spokesperson told CNN when asked to clarify.

    Hale graduated from Nossi College of Art & Design in Nashville last year, the president of the school confirmed to CNN. Hale worked as a freelance graphic designer and a part-time grocery shopper, a LinkedIn profile says.

    nashville teammate lemon split

    Former teammate of Nashville school shooter got unusual Instagram messages before rampage

    Information from police and from the shooter’s childhood friend helped illuminate a timeline of the deadly attack.

    Just before 10 a.m. Monday, the shooter sent an ominous message to a childhood friend, the friend told CNN on Tuesday. In an Instagram message to Averianna Patton, a Nashville radio host, just before 10 a.m. Monday, the shooter said “I’m planning to die today” and that it would be on the news.

    “One day this will make more sense,” Hale wrote. “I’ve left more than enough evidence behind. But something bad is about to happen.”

    Patton told CNN’s Don Lemon she was the shooter’s childhood basketball teammate and “knew her well when we were kids” but hadn’t spoken in years and is unsure why she received the message. Disturbed by its content, she called a suicide prevention line and the Nashville Davidson County Sheriff’s Office at 10:13 a.m.

    At that very minute, police in Nashville also got a 911 call of an active shooter inside Covenant School and rushed there.

    The moment school shooter Audrey Hale arrived at the Covenant School was captured in 2 minutes of surveillance video released by Metro Nashville Police.

    Armed with three firearms, the shooter got into the school by firing through glass doors and climbing through to get inside, surveillance video released by Metro Nashville Police shows. Pointing an assault-style weapon, the shooter walked through the school’s hallways, the video shows.

    As the first five officers arrived, they heard gunfire from the second floor. The shooter was “firing through a window at arriving police cars,” police said in the news release.

    Police went upstairs, where two officers opened fire, killing the shooter at 10:27 a.m., police spokesperson Don Aaron said.

    After the shooter was dead, children were evacuated from the school and taken in buses to be reunited with their families. They held hands and walked in a line out of the school, where community members embraced, video showed.

    “This school prepared for this with active shooter training for a reason,” Nashville Metropolitan Councilman Russ Pulley told CNN. “We don’t like to think that this is ever going to happen to us. But experience has taught us that we need to be prepared because in this day and time it is the reality of where we are.”

    Patton, meanwhile, had “called Nashville’s non-emergency line at 10:14 a.m. and was on hold for nearly seven minutes before speaking with someone who said that they would send an officer to my home,” she told CNN affiliate WTVF. An officer did not come to her home until about 3:30 p.m., she said.

    Students from the Covenant School hold hands Monday after getting off a bus to meet their parents at a reunification site after a mass shooting at the school in Nashville.

    Two Covenant School employees are among the victims of Monday’s mass shooting, according to the school.

    Katherine Koonce was identified as the head of the school, its website says. She attended Vanderbilt University and Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville and got her master’s degree from Georgia State University.

    Sissy Goff, one of Koonce’s friends, went to the reunification center after the shooting and suspected something was wrong when she didn’t see Koonce there.

    “Knowing her, she’s so kind and strong and such a voice of reason and just security for people that she would have been there in front handling everything, so I had a feeling,” Goff said.

    She said Koonce was a calming influence and even got a dog named “Covie” who greeted students before and after school.

    “Parents are so anxious, kids are so anxious, and Katherine had such a centering voice for people,” Goff said.

    Mike Hill was identified in the staff section of the Covenant Presbyterian Church’s website as facilities/kitchen staff. Hill, 61, was a custodian at the school, per police. A friend confirmed his image to CNN.

    Cynthia Peak, 61, was believed to be a substitute teacher, police said Monday.

    The family of Evelyn Dieckhaus, one of the 9-year-old victims, provided a statement to CNN affiliate KMOV.

    “Our hearts are completely broken. We cannot believe this has happened. Evelyn was a shining light in this world. We appreciate all the love and support but ask for space as we grieve,” the family said.

    The Covenant School issued a statement Monday night grieving the shooting.

    “Our community is heartbroken. We are grieving tremendous loss and are in shock coming out of the terror that shattered our school and church. We are focused on loving our students, our families, our faculty and staff and beginning the process of healing,” the school said in a statement.

    “Law enforcement is conducting its investigation, and while we understand there is a lot of interest and there will be a lot of discussion about and speculation surrounding what happened, we will continue to prioritize the well-being of our community.

    “We appreciate the outpouring of support we have received, and we are tremendously grateful to the first responders who acted quickly to protect our students, faculty and staff. We ask for privacy as our community grapples with this terrible tragedy – for our students, parents, faculty and staff,” the statement said.

    Cooper, the Nashville mayor, said he is “overwhelmed at the thought of the loss of these families, of the future lost by these children and their families.”

    “The leading cause of kids’ death now is guns and gunfire and that is unacceptable,” Cooper said.

    A recent study published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics in December backs that point, finding that homicide is a leading cause of death for children in the United States and the overall rate has increased an average of 4.3% each year for nearly a decade.

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  • UK counter terrorism police investigating after man set on fire near mosque | CNN

    UK counter terrorism police investigating after man set on fire near mosque | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    British counter terrorism police are investigating an attack on a man who was set on fire while he was walking home from a mosque in Birmingham, central England, on Monday.

    One man has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and remains in custody, West Midlands police said in a statement Tuesday.

    The victim was approached by a man who sprayed him “with an unknown substance” before setting him ablaze, officers said.

    “It’s believed the man, who was walking home from Dudley Road mosque, was approached by a man who spoke to him briefly before spraying him with an unknown substance and then his jacket was set alight, causing burns to his face,” the statement reads.

    “He was taken to hospital with serious injuries which are thankfully not believed to be life-threatening,” it added.

    Security camera footage of the incident has been widely shared on social media.

    “We’re aware of a video being circulated on social media showing a man being set alight, and we’re examining it as part of our investigations,” police said.

    West Midlands police Supt. James Spencer said police “are determined to find out who is responsible.”

    And Chief Supt. Richard North said police are “keeping an open mind to the motive of the attacker,” and won’t comment further on a possible motive.

    Extra officers have been deployed to the area today to speak to the community and to provide reassurance, police said.

    This is the second incident of its kind in England in recent weeks.

    On February 27, an 82-year-old man was set on fire shortly after leaving a mosque in Ealing, west London, according to a statement from London’s Metropolitan Police.

    West Midlands police said the force is “aware of a similar incident in the Ealing area of London and we are working with the Metropolitan Police Service to see whether they are linked.”

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  • The oldest Black church in California’s East Bay burns in three-alarm fire | CNN

    The oldest Black church in California’s East Bay burns in three-alarm fire | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    The oldest Black church in California’s East Bay was devastated by a massive fire Sunday night that the church’s pastor said gutted its interior structure.

    Video showed heavy smoke and flames shooting from the roof of the First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Oakland, where the fire erupted shortly before midnight, according to a tweet from the Oakland Fire Department. It quickly escalated to a three-alarm fire, the department said, with about 60 firefighters working to quell the blaze.

    A fire investigator has been able to determine the “area of origin,” per the department, but the cause remains undetermined.

    No injuries have been reported.

    “We don’t know why, we don’t know who, but it’s burning down,” the pastor, the Rev. Rodney Smith, said in a video shared on the congregation’s Facebook page, adding the church’s interior structure had been lost and only the outer walls were still standing. “But I promise you this, we will rise again.”

    The church is the first and oldest Black church in the East Bay, dating to 1858, according to the Oakland Library.

    Per the Online Archive of California, it stood as the only African American church in Oakland for more than three decades. It was also the first school for people of color at a time when only White children could attend public schools – a history Smith highlighted in his video, shot at the scene of the fire.

    “First AME Church Oakland was educating Black people 20 years before we were able to get public education,” he said. “The church feeds the community, serves the community in every way.”

    “I’m completely devastated, completely at a loss for words,” he said.

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  • Pakistan mosque blast death toll rises to 92 as country faces ‘national security crisis’ | CNN

    Pakistan mosque blast death toll rises to 92 as country faces ‘national security crisis’ | CNN

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    Islamabad, Pakistan
    CNN
     — 

    The death toll from a suspected suicide bomb that ripped through a mosque in northwestern Pakistan Monday has risen to at least 92, marking one of the deadliest attacks in the country in years as it faces what one analyst described as “a national security crisis.”

    Peshawar deputy commissioner Shafiullah Khan on Tuesday confirmed the fatalities and said more than 80 victims were still being treated in hospital following the blast at the mosque in a police compound in the city.

    Nasarullah Khan, a police official who survived the explosion, said he remembered seeing “a huge burst of flames” before becoming surrounded by a plume of black dust.

    Khan said his foot broke in the blast and he was stuck in the rubble for three hours.

    “The ceiling fell in… the space in between the ceiling and wall is where I managed to survive,” he said.

    Meanwhile, hope was fading in the search for survivors as rescue workers sifted through the rubble of the mosque that was all but destroyed Monday, when worshipers – mainly law enforcement officials – had gathered for evening prayers.

    Photos and video show walls of the mosque reduced to fragments, with glass windows and paneling destroyed in the powerful blast.

    “We are not expecting anyone alive to be found. Mostly dead bodies are being recovered,” Bilal Faizi, a rescue spokesperson, said Tuesday.

    The blast Monday is the latest sign of the deteriorating security situation in Peshawar, capital of the restive Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province that borders Afghanistan and the site of frequent attacks by the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP).

    The TTP is a US-designated foreign terrorist organization operating in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.

    Last year, the breakdown of an already shaky year-long ceasefire between the TTP and Pakistan’s government threatened not only escalating violence in that country but potentially an increase in cross-border tensions between the Afghan and Pakistani governments.

    Initially on Monday, TTP officials Sarbakaf Mohmand and Omar Mukaram Khurasani had claimed the blast was “revenge” for the death of TTP militant Khalid Khorasani last year.

    But the TTP’s main spokesperson later denied the group was involved in the attack.

    “Regarding the Peshawar incident, we consider it necessary to clarify that Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan has nothing to do with this incident,” TTP spokesperson Muhammad Khorasani said in a statement late Monday. “According to our laws and general constitution, any action in mosques, madrasas, funerals grounds and other sacred places is an offense.”

    Pakistan authorities say an investigation is underway and have not confirmed either claim.

    On Monday, Peshawar Police Chief Mohammad Aijaz Khan said the blast inside the Police Lines Mosque was “probably a suicide attack,” echoing a statement from Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

    “The brutal killing of Muslims prostrating before Allah is against the teachings of the Quran,” Sharif said, adding that “targeting the House of Allah is proof that the attackers have nothing to do with Islam.”

    Soldiers and police officers clear the way for ambulances rushing toward the explosion site in Peshawar, Pakistan, January 30, 2023.

    Security officials and rescue workers gather at the site of a suspected suicide bombing, in Peshawar, Pakistan, January 30, 2023.

    Rights groups have condemned the deadly attack, which has raised fears of fresh violence amid a deteriorating security situation in the country.

    The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan in a statement Monday said the attack could have been avoided if the “state heeded earlier warnings from civil society about extremist outfits in the province.”

    “Ill-equipped law enforcement personnel continue to be targeted in incidents that dearly cost civilian and police lives. We demand the state take action now,” the statement said.

    Madiha Afzal, a fellow in foreign policy at the Brookings Institution in Washington, said the 2021 Taliban takeover in Afghanistan has “emboldened” the TTP and other terror groups.

    “The TTP has also been emboldened by a Pakistani state that has had a shaky, uncertain response to the group in the last couple of years,” she said, adding a “sloppy policy toward terrorist groups has been more or less consistent across governments in Pakistan since the mid-2000s.”

    Negotiations with the militants have “failed repeatedly because these groups are existentially opposed to the Pakistani state and constitution,” she added.

    “This is now a national security crisis for Pakistan once again. The solution has to be a concerted military operation (against the TTP),” she said. “But that is now complicated by the fact that the TTP can go across the border into Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.”

    The attack also comes at a fragile time for Pakistan, which has been grappling with a cost of living crisis as food and fuel shortages wreak havoc in the country of 220 million.

    Sharif’s government has struggled to revive the country’s economy, further devastated by deadly floods last year that killed more than 1,500 people and submerged entire villages.

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  • Blast in mosque in Pakistan kills at least 25 people, with scores injured | CNN

    Blast in mosque in Pakistan kills at least 25 people, with scores injured | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    A powerful blast inside a mosque in Pakistan’s northwestern city of Peshawar has left at least 25 people dead and 120 more injured, according to Peshawar deputy commissioner Shafiullah Khan.

    The mosque is situated inside a police compound in the city and is mostly attended by law enforcement officials.

    The explosion took place in the middle of afternoon prayers Monday.

    This is a breaking news story. More to follow.

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  • Former Moscow-linked Church claims religious persecution as security raids heat up | CNN

    Former Moscow-linked Church claims religious persecution as security raids heat up | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    The vertically shot video published last November shows no weapons, battlefield atrocities or even soldiers. But the sound of a patriotic Russian song reverberating through a church on Kyiv’s famous Lavra monastery grounds seemed to open a new front in Ukraine’s war with Russia.

    The church belongs to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) – which, despite the name, has traditionally been loyal to the Russian Orthodox Church, and whose current leader Patriarch Kiril has openly supported Moscow’s brutal invasion. Splitting with Kiril, the leadership of the UOC denounced Russia’s attack, and last May, declared its independence from Russia.

    In a sermon days after the split, Patriarch Kiril said he was praying that “no temporary external obstacles will ever destroy the spiritual unity of our people.”

    Days after the video surfaced, masked members of the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) conducted a raid on the Lavra – officially, to prevent it being used for “hiding sabotage and reconnaissance groups” or “storing weapons.”

    By December, a handful of church leaders had been sanctioned, and dozens more churches across the country were raided by the SBU – though the searches turned up little more than a few Russian passports, symbols and books.

    “There was no mention in the findings of weapons or saboteurs. What they said they found was printed matter, documents, which are not prohibited under Ukrainian law,” UOC Bishop Metropolitan Klyment told CNN in an interview.

    There is plenty of gray area, however. In a statement the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) told CNN that it’s not illegal to store Russian propaganda, but it is to distribute it. “If such literature is in the library of the diocese or on the shelves of a church shop, it is obvious that it is intended for mass distribution,” the statement read.

    It insisted that the raids on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church “are aimed exclusively at national security issues. This is not a matter of religion.” Vladimir Legoyda, a spokesperson for the Russian Orthodox Church, however, slammed the searches as an “act of intimidation.”

    Professor Viktor Yelenskyi, Ukraine’s newly appointed religious freedom watchdog, said that for more than 30 years the UOC leadership has been “poisoning people with the ideas of the Russian world.” He defended the SBU’s raids, comparing them to the crackdown on Islamic extremism after 9/11. “Ukraine is still a safe haven for religious freedom.”

    Yet, at the end of 2022, the government declined to renew the church’s lease on its massive, central Lavra cathedral and turned over the keys to the similarly named, but completely separate Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU). The rival OCU celebrated Orthodox Christmas (on January 7) mass there for the first time this year.

    Speaking outside the church on Christmas Day, Alla, who declined to give her last name, said, “I think it should’ve been done a long time ago.”

    “We’ve been tolerating this [UOC] evil and closing our eyes as we thought we should be tolerant, but the war brought it all to surface.”

    Father Pavlo Mityaev is pictured at the Orthodox Church of Ukraine Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Vita Poshtova, a village just outside Kyiv.

    The Ukrainian Orthodox Church held this year’s Christmas mass at a smaller church down just steps from the cathedral. Kyrylo Serheyev, a student at the lavra seminary, said this year especially, he’s praying for Ukrainian troops. And despite government sanctions and scrutiny of his church, he insists “our patriotism is not becoming less.”

    Viktoria Vinnyk said she was sad not to have mass in the central cathedral this year. Though she speaks Russian, she’s never been to Russia.

    “I hope for better in my country. And I hope that the situation will change,” she said.

    The cathedral isn’t the only holy site to change hands. Outside Kyiv, in the village of Vita Poshtova, a small church has sat perched on a hillside above the frozen lake since the Soviet era. It’s the only one in the village. In September the congregation voted to convert the church from UOC to the independent OCU. Parishioner Olha Mazurets says she was uncomfortable with any connection to Russia.

    “It’s a matter of identity and self-preservation. We must identify our enemy too,” she told CNN.

    The ceiling of the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Vita Poshtova in Ukraine.

    Father Pavlo Mityaev, the newly appointed priest says before war, “people didn’t pay attention to whether it was a Ukrainian or Russian-speaking church, they were coming to God. But when the war started, everything changed.”

    According to Klyment, up to 400 of the UOC’s 12,000 churches in Ukraine have converted to the OCU since the war began.

    The security services says that since the full-scale invasion began, 19 church clergy have been charged and five have been convicted.

    In December, UOC priest Andriy Pavlenko was sentenced to 12 years for passing information about Ukrainian battlefield positions in the Donbas to the Russians. A week later, he was sent to Russia as part of a prisoner exchange.

    Klyment acknowledges that priest’s guilt but dismisses other cases – like the Vinnytsia priest indicted just this week for disseminating pro-Russian propaganda – as hollow accusations. He thinks the wider church is being unfairly tarnished.

    “Members of the Ukrainian Orthodox … are citizens of Ukraine, and sometimes among the best citizens of Ukraine, proving their patriotism with their own lives,” he said referring to UOC members fighting on the front lines.

    In his nightly address on December 1, President Volodymyr Zelensky indicated he was prepared to go beyond raids – proposing a law to ban churches with “centers of influence” in Russia from operating in Ukraine – all in the name of “spiritual independence.”

    “We will never allow anyone to build an empire inside the Ukrainian soul,” he said.

    But Klyment believes that law would merely push his church underground.

    “What else do you call persecution if not this?” he asked.

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  • DOJ appeals decision that faulted Air Force for 2017 Texas church shooting | CNN Politics

    DOJ appeals decision that faulted Air Force for 2017 Texas church shooting | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    The Justice Department on Monday formally appealed a 2021 federal court ruling that found the US government was mostly responsible for the 2017 mass shooting at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, arguing that the court erred when it said the government was more at fault for the massacre than the shooter himself.

    During the shooting, the gunman, former US Air Force member Devin Patrick Kelley, killed 26 people and wounded 22 others at the First Baptist Church in the small community of Sutherland Springs. He died later that day from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

    “The attack on innocent victims at the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs was an inexpressible tragedy and the United States unequivocally does not seek to excuse the Air Force’s failure to submit Kelley’s fingerprints and record of conviction for inclusion in NICS databases,” attorneys for the department wrote in court papers filed Monday evening. “Nonetheless, under settled Texas and federal law, the United States is not liable for Kelley’s actions, and is certainly not more responsible for those acts than the murderer himself.”

    DOJ spokeswoman Dena Iverson said in a recent statement that the government and plaintiffs have been engaged in a months-long effort to resolve the case through an out-of-court resolution.

    “Although the formal mediation has now ended, we remain open to resolving the plaintiffs’ claims through settlement and will continue our efforts to do so,” Iverson said.

    In a July 2021 ruling from US District Judge Xavier Rodriguez for the Western District of Texas, the court found the government 60% responsible for the harm that happened in the shooting and “jointly and severally liable for the damages that may be awarded.”

    Rodriguez concluded the Air Force failed to exercise reasonable care when it didn’t submit the shooter’s criminal history to the FBI’s background check system, which increased the risk of physical harm to the general public.

    “Even if the United States could be liable, the court erred in apportioning 60% of the responsibility to the United States (20% for line employees and 40% for supervisors), leaving only 40% for Kelley,” the DOJ attorneys argued in their filing on Monday.

    “The court committed legal error in apportioning a share of responsibility to the United States under a negligent supervision theory after already imposing liability for the acts of the supervised line employees – under Texas law, these theories are mutually exclusive. Moreover, the court erred by holding the United States more responsible for Kelley’s outrages than Kelley himself,” they wrote.

    In its filing, the DOJ asked the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to hold oral arguments to hear the appeal, writing: “The record in this case is voluminous and the legal issues are important and complex. Oral argument will be of substantial benefit to this Court in understanding the important issues in the case.”

    Victims of the shooting and families who suffered a loss in the incident have previously voiced opposition to the DOJ’s plan to appeal the decision, with an attorney for some of them saying on Monday that the move “dealt a blow to America’s safety.”

    “The DOJ’s appeal asks the court to hold that flagrantly and repeatedly violating the law – for over thirty years – by allowing child abusing felons and domestic violence offenders’ guns does not risk the safety of the public. The twenty-six dead and twenty-two injured at the Sutherland Springs mass shooting disagree,” Jamal Alsaffar, the lead attorney for the Sutherland Springs First Baptist Church families, said in a statement.

    Kelley was charged in military court in 2012 on suspicion of assaulting his spouse and their child. Kelley received a bad conduct discharge, confinement for 12 months, and was demoted to E-1, or airman basic.

    But despite his history of domestic abuse and questionable behavior involving firearms, Kelley was able to purchase the Ruger AR-556 rifle he allegedly used in the shooting from a store in San Antonio in April 2016, a law enforcement official previously told CNN.

    The failure to relay that information prevented the entry of his conviction into the federal database that must be checked before someone is able to purchase a firearm. Had his information been in the database at the National Criminal Information Center, it should have prevented gun sales to Kelley. Federal law prohibits people convicted of a misdemeanor crime involving domestic violence from owning firearms.

    Rodriguez’s order stated that no other individual – not even the shooter’s parents or partners – knew as much as the government did about his violent history and the violence he was capable of committing.

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