22 people killed, 3 injured in restaurant fire in China
(LONDON) — At least 22 people have been killed and three others were injured in a fire at a restaurant in northern China on Tuesday afternoon, according to Chinese state media.
The blaze broke out at around 12:25 p.m. local time on Tuesday in the city of Liaoning, according to the state-run Xinhua News Agency and national broadcaster CCTV.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has urged all-out efforts to treat the injured, assist victims’ families and investigate the cause of the fire, Xinhua and CCTV reported.
Investigators have not yet discovered the cause of the fire but, according to the Associated Press, images from the scene showed huge flames spurting from the windows and doors of the two- or three-story building.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(VATICAN CITY) — Pope Francis, one of the more progressive pontiff’s in the history of the Roman Catholic Church, died on Monday morning at the age of 88, the Vatican confirmed.
Francis’ willingness to take a more progressive stance on issues from LGBTQ rights to same-sex marriage to immigration make him one of the most progressive and influential popes of the modern era.
Here are memorable moments from Francis’ time where he voiced his opinions on those topics.
Francis’ stance on members of the LGBTQ community
In December 2023, Francis formally signed off on allowing Catholic priests to bless same-sex couples, he said in a declaration released by the Vatican’s office.
The declaration stated, “When people ask for a blessing, an exhaustive moral analysis should not be placed as a precondition for conferring it. For those seeking a blessing should not be required to have prior moral perfection.”
“A blessing offers people a means to increase their trust in God. The request for a blessing, thus, expresses and nurtures openness to the transcendence, mercy and the closeness to God in a thousand concrete circumstances of life, which is no small thing in the world in which we live,” the declaration stated.
Before this declaration, Francis had previously reaffirmed the church’s stance on marriage — “an exclusive, stable, and indissoluble union between a man and a woman, naturally open to procreation” — but also said he advocated for “pastoral charity.”
“The defense of objective truth is not the only expression of this charity; it also includes kindness, patience, understanding, tenderness and encouragement. Therefore, we cannot be judges who only deny, reject and exclude,” he said in a letter written in July 2023.
He added that “pastoral prudence must adequately discern whether there are forms of blessing, requested by one or more persons, that do not convey a mistaken concept of marriage.”
In an exclusive interview with The Associated Press earlier that year, Francis said “being homosexual isn’t a crime.”
In 2013, during his first foreign trip as pope, a journalist asked Francis a question about gay priests, to which he replied: “If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge?”
Francis on migrants: ‘The Son of God, in becoming man, also chose to live the drama of immigration’
In a letter shared in February, Francis rebuked the Trump administration over the migrant deportations occurring in the United States in the wake of the president’s second inauguration, calling it a “major crisis.”
“The family of Nazareth in exile, Jesus, Mary and Joseph, emigrants in Egypt and refugees there to escape the wrath of an ungodly king, are the model, the example and the consolation of emigrants and pilgrims of every age and country, of all refugees of every condition who, beset by persecution or necessity, are forced to leave their homeland, beloved family and dear friends to foreign lands,” the letter read.
He said that he “act of deporting people who in many cases have left their own land for reasons of extreme poverty, insecurity, exploitation, persecution or serious deterioration of the environment, damages the dignity of many men and woman, and of entire families, and places them in a state of particular vulnerability and defenselessness.”
Francis, who was the first pope from Latin America, also donated $500,000 to migrants at the U.S. border back in 2019 to assist in providing food, lodging and basic necessities for those fleeing their home countries through Mexico.
Francis previously stated he was against surrogacy, abortion
In an interview with CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell in May 2024, Francis stated surrogacy is “not authorized” and advocated for adoption.
“Sometimes surrogacy has become a business, and that is very bad,” Francis told CBS News. “The other hope is adoption. In each case, the situation should be carefully and clearly considered, consulted medically and then morally as well.”
In 2014, the pontiff also shared his views on abortion, calling it part of the world’s “throwaway culture.”
“Unfortunately, what is thrown away is not only food and dispensable objects, but often human beings themselves, who are discarded as ‘unnecessary,'” Francis said in 2014 during his “State of the World” address.
(LONDON) — Hundreds of Ukrainian drones crossed into Russia overnight into Wednesday morning, dozens of which targeted Moscow and again caused disruption to flights in and out of the capital, according to officials there.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces shot down 296 Ukrainian drones over 12 regions — including the capital Moscow — during the latest round of long-range strikes.
Moscow Governor Andrei Vorobyov said on Telegram that at least 42 drones were downed over the region. Vorobyov reported damage to three homes in the town of Chekhov around 40 miles south of the capital.
Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport — one of four international airports in the capital — also warned travelers of delays due to flight restrictions imposed during the latest drone attack. Recent weeks have seen regular disruptions to Moscow’s airports during such strikes.
Andriy Kovalenko, the head of the Counter-Disinformation Center operating as part of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said on Telegram there were “some pretty good hits” during Tuesday night’s attack.
Among the targets were the Dubna Machine-Building Plant — involved in the production of aviation, missile and drone technology, Kovalenko said — in the city of Dubna, around 70 miles north of Moscow.
Kovalenko said the Technopark ELMA-Zelenograd facility — which hosts the development of microelectronics, IT, robotics and medical equipment — was also targeted. The facility “is one of the centers where import substitution of critical components previously imported from the West takes place,” Kovalenko said.
ABC News could not immediately verify Kovalenko’s claim of successful strikes on the facilities.
Russia continued its own long-range attacks on Ukraine overnight. Ukraine’s air force said Moscow launched six missiles and 88 strike drones into the country, of which 71 drones were shot down or otherwise neutralized. The air force said it recorded impacts in eight locations.
The intensity of strikes by both sides have only increased since President Donald Trump’s return to office in January, the president having promised to end Russia’s war on its neighbor war in 24 hours. Trump has not delivered on that promise, and his frustration appears to have been building in recent weeks with the continued failure of U.S.-led ceasefire efforts.
Trump called Putin “absolutely crazy” in a Sunday social media post, then on Tuesday said Putin “doesn’t realize is that if it weren’t for me, lots of really bad things would have already happened to Russia, and I mean REALLY BAD. He’s playing with fire!”
The U.S. and Ukraine are now waiting for Russia to deliver its peace memorandum — a document promised by Putin to Trump during a phone call between the two leaders earlier this month. Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Tuesday that Moscow was still working on the document.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy cast doubt on the Russian proposal. “They’ve already spent over a week on this,” he wrote on social media on Tuesday. “They talk a lot about diplomacy. But when, in the midst of all that, there are constant Russian strikes, constant killings, relentless assaults, and even preparations for new offensives.”
On Wednesday, Andriy Yermak — the head of Zelenskyy’s presidential office — wrote on Telegram, “Russians are masters of empty words.”
(PARIS) — A verdict was reached Friday in the 2016 jewelry heist of Kim Kardashian in Paris.
Nine men and one woman were accused in connection with the robbery, during which five masked men posing as police officers allegedly stormed into Kardashian’s hotel suite.
The suspects allegedly made off with valuables worth at least $6 million, including a diamond engagement ring given to Kardashian by her then-husband Kanye West. That ring alone was said to be worth about $4 million.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
