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At least 40 Dead In Concert Shooting

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Gunmen opened fire at a rock concert in a Moscow suburb Friday killing at least 40 people, wounding 100 and setting off an inferno in the theatre, authorities said.

Attackers dressed in camouflage uniforms entered the building, opened fire and threw a grenade or incendiary bomb, according to a journalist for the RIA Novosti news agency at the scene.

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Fire quickly spread through the Crocus City concert hall in the Krasnogorsk suburb in the north of the Russian capital, which can hold several thousand people and has hosted top international artists.

According to preliminary information, 40 people were killed and more than 100 were injured as a result of a terrorist attack in the Crocus City Hall,” according to the FSB security service, quoted by Interfax news agency and other Russian media.

Authorities said a “terrorist” investigation had been started and President Vladimir Putin was receiving “constant” updates on the attack, his spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian news agencies.

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Telegram news channels Baza and Mash, which are close to security forces, showed video images of flames and black smoke pouring from the hall.

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Other images showed two men walking through the hall with at least one person left on the ground near the entrance. Concert-goers were also seen hiding behind seats or trying to escape.

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Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said there had been a “terrible tragedy” at the concert by Russian rock band Piknik and cancelled all public events in the city for the weekend.

Security services quoted by Interfax news agency said between two and five people “wearing tactical uniforms and carrying automatic weapons” opened fire on guards at the entrance and then started shooting at the audience.

“People who were in the hall were led on the ground to protect themselves from the shooting for 15 or 20 minutes,” the RIA Novosti journalist was quoted as saying.

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People started crawling out when it was safe, the journalist reported.

READ ALSO: One Dead, 21 Injured In US Super Bowl Parade Shooting

Odious crime’

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About 100 people escaped through the theatre basement while others were sheltering on the the roof, the emergency services ministry said on its Telegram channel.

But about one third of the complex was ablaze, TASS news agency reported.

Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said it had been a “bloody terrorist attack”.

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“The whole international community must condemn this odious crime,” she said on Telegram.

The US presidency called the attack “terrible” but said there was no immediate sign of any link to the conflict in Ukraine.

“There is no indication at this time that Ukraine, or Ukrainians were involved in the shooting,” US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters in Washington.

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Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev vowed on Telegram that Ukraine’s top officials “must be found and ruthlessly destroyed as terrorists” if they were linked to the attack.

“I offer my condolences to the families of the dead,” said Moscow’s mayor as a major security operation was launched around the theatre and nearby shopping mall.

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TASS said that SOBR, special police forces and the OMON anti-riot squad had been sent to the Crocus hall.

It added that all the members of the rock band had been evacuated safely.

Orthodox church leader Patriarch Kirill was “praying for peace for the souls of the dead,” said his spokesman Vladimir Legoyda.

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Previous warnings

Moscow and other Russian cities have been the targets of previous attacks by Islamist groups but there have also been incidents without any clear political motive.

READ ALSO: One Killed As Sokoto Youths, Bandits Engage In Shootout

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Earlier this month, the US embassy in Russia warned “extremists have imminent plans to target large gatherings in Moscow”, including concerts.

In 2002, Chechen separatist fighters took 912 people hostage in a Moscow theatre, the Dobrovka, demanding the withdrawal of Russian troops from the region.

Special forces attacked the theatre to end the hostage taking and 130 people were killed, nearly all suffocated by a gas used by security forces to knock out the gunmen.

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Russia launched a military intervention in Ukraine in February 2022 and it has been the target of attacks along the border by anti-Kremlin forces.

Ukraine’s presidency and the Freedom of Russia Legion, whose fighters are part of Ukraine’s armed forces, denied any role in the concert hall attack.

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Young Catholics Converge On Rome For Pope Leo’s Vigil

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Thousands of young Catholics began assembling Saturday for an evening prayer vigil led by Pope Leo XIV, the culmination of a week-long pilgrimage and a key event in the Jubilee holy year that is expected to draw up to a million people.

The “Jubilee of Youth” — when the Vatican invites Catholics aged 18 to 35 to the seat of the global Church’s power — has seen young pilgrims from around the world flood Rome, waving flags, singing or praying in groups.

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It comes nearly three months after Leo, 69, the first American pontiff, began his papacy, and 25 years after the last such massive youth gathering in Rome under Poland’s Pope John Paul II.

On Saturday morning, thousands of young pilgrims had already gathered at the vast open space in Rome’s eastern Tor Vergata neighbourhood where the pope will lead the vigil, the ground already dotted with blankets and mattresses.

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Elsewhere in the Eternal City, numerous groups of young people were seen preparing to set off for the venue.

On the plaza outside the Basilica of St John Lateran, they filled water bottles, applied suncream and checked bags of food and snacks — ready to spend the next 24 hours surrounded by a swarm of people and then sleep under the stars.

Victoria Perez, who carried a Spanish flag, could not contain her excitement at seeing “the Pope up close.

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It’s the first time I’m going to see him, and I can’t wait,” the 21-year-old told AFP, excited to experience the “night of prayers under the stars”.

French pilgrim, Quentin Remaury, 26, said he had been inspired by the late Pope Francis’s rousing message to youth during a 2016 visit to Krakow, Poland.

READ ALSO:Gunmen Invade Catholic Seminary School In Edo, Kill One, Abduct Three

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Pope Francis told us to ‘get off your couches,’ and that really gave me a boost,” he said.

– ‘What is his message?’ –

Since the youth jubilee began on Monday, attendees have participated in various Church-planned events throughout the city.

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On Friday, approximately 1,000 priests were on hand to take confession at Circus Maximus, one of Rome’s top tourist spots.

Some 200 white gazebos lined the hippodrome where chariot races were once held, and youths lined up to speak to priests in 10 different languages.

Of the many languages heard on the streets of the Italian capital this week, Spanish seemed to dominate. The Vatican has said that more than 146 countries were represented, and it expects up to a million people to attend the vigil.

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The pilgrimage is taking place as economic uncertainty and anxiety over climate change rise among the under-30s, with many saying they were curious to hear the Church’s position on global warming, wars and economic inequalities.

Samarei Semos, 29, said she had travelled three days from her native Belize to get to Rome.

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“We are still trying to understand his leadership,” she said of the new pope, adding she hoped he would have a strong say about “third world countries”.

As Parisian student Alice Berry exclaimed, “What does he have to say to us? What is his message for young people?”

– Raising voices –

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The youth pilgrimage also comes amid global alarm over the humanitarian situation in Gaza, and more than three years of war in Ukraine.

READ ALSO:Pope Leo XIV Outlines A Path For A Modern Church That Follows Francis’ Steps

The Vatican has praised young Catholics who managed to travel to Rome from war-scarred countries, with Pope Leo saying the voices of the world’s youth “will be heard to the end of the earth”.

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In an unprecedented move, Leo hosted a mass on Tuesday for Catholic social media influencers, signalling the Vatican’s openness to supporting the Internet-savvy youth.

More than 4,300 volunteers will be working the event to welcome the young pilgrims, along with over 1,000 police, according to organisers.

Roman authorities have tightened security in the city — which has seen an unprecedented number of people, with both tourists and pilgrims inundating the city.

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Ukrainian Drone Strikes Kill Three In Russia

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Ukrainian drone strikes killed three people and wounded two others overnight in western Russia, regional governors said on Saturday.

One woman was killed and two other people were wounded in an attack on an enterprise in Penza, the region’s governor, Oleg Melnichenko, wrote on Telegram.

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An elderly man was killed inside a house that caught fire due to falling drone debris in the Samara region, Governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev posted on Telegram.

In the Rostov region, a guard at an industrial facility was killed after a drone attack and a fire in one of the site’s buildings, acting Rostov governor Yuri Sliusar said.

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The military repelled a massive air attack during the night,” destroying drones over seven districts, Sliusar posted on Telegram.

Russia’s defence ministry said its air defence systems had destroyed 112 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory — 34 over the Rostov region — in a nearly nine-hour period, from Friday night to Saturday morning.

In Ukraine’s central-eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, overnight Russian drone attacks left three people wounded, governor Sergiy Lysak wrote on Telegram.

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Several buildings, homes and cars were damaged, he said.

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Russian forces have claimed advances in Dnipropetrovsk, recently announcing the capture of two villages there, part of Moscow’s accelerated capture of territory in July, according to AFP’s analysis of data from the US-based Institute for the Study of War.

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Kyiv denies any Russian presence in the Dnipropetrovsk area.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has consistently rejected calls for a ceasefire in the more than three-year conflict, said Friday that he wanted peace but that his demands for ending Moscow’s military offensive were “unchanged”.

Those demands include that Ukraine abandon territory and end ambitions to join NATO.

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, meanwhile, said only Putin could end the war and renewed his call for a meeting between the two leaders.

“The United States has proposed this. Ukraine has supported it. What is needed is Russia’s readiness,” he wrote on X.

AFP

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Corporation For Public Broadcasting To Shut Down Following Trump’s Funding Cuts

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The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) announced on Friday that it will shut down operations, ending over 60 years of public media funding.

The move comes after President Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers succeeded in eliminating federal support for the organization.

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Trump recently signed a rescissions bill canceling $9 billion in previously approved government spending. Of that amount, $1.1 billion had been allocated to CPB for the next two years.

Trump has long criticized public media as “biased” against conservatives and made repeated efforts to cut its funding.

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Despite the extraordinary efforts of millions of Americans who called, wrote, and petitioned Congress to preserve federal funding for CPB, we now face the difficult reality of closing our operations,” said CPB President and CEO Patricia Harrison.

“CPB remains committed to fulfilling its fiduciary responsibilities and supporting our partners through this transition with transparency and care.”

The organization is now focused on helping local PBS and NPR stations—especially those in rural areas—prepare for the resulting budget shortfalls.

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Harrison previously warned that some stations could be forced to close entirely.

Larger outlets may survive with help from donors and other revenue streams, but public media leaders say the national network will be severely weakened.

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The ripple effects of this closure will be felt across every public media organization and, more importantly, in every community across the country that relies on public broadcasting,” said NPR CEO Katherine Maher.

The CPB expects to eliminate most of its 100 staff positions by September 30, when the current funding expires.

A small transition team will remain until January to oversee a “responsible and orderly closeout of operations.”

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The shutdown marks a political win for Trump, who has pushed for defunding CPB since the start of his presidency. Earlier this year, he tried to remove three board members, despite lacking legal authority under the 1967 law that created the corporation.

CPB filed a lawsuit to block that attempt, but on Friday, it voluntarily dropped the case—effectively conceding defeat.

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REPUBLICANS HAVE TRIED DOING THIS FOR 40 YEARS, AND FAILED… BUT NO MORE,” Trump posted on Truth Social, celebrating the bill’s passage through the GOP-controlled House and Senate.

Some advocates had hoped that Congress might still restore funding through the usual budget process.

However, a draft Senate bill released Thursday included no CPB funding—suggesting those hopes are now unlikely to materialize.

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Trump and other Republicans argue that defunding CPB is a stand against liberal influence in public broadcasting.

Public media supporters say the move undermines civic life and access to reliable news.

READ ALSO:Anxiety As Trump Gives Russia 50 Days To Make Ukraine Deal

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The end of CPB is the direct result of the deep and corrupt failure of Congress and the Trump administration to invest in informing the American public,” said Craig Aaron, co-CEO of media advocacy group Free Press.

They have trashed decades of democracy-building work and will deny many journalists, artists, educators and creators the opportunity to be heard.”

Aaron said he still believes there’s a chance to rebuild publicly funded media from the ground up. He called for a new system “as a bulwark against authoritarianism that meets the civic needs of all our communities.”

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Some broadcasters are already mobilizing support. In Boston, GBH put up a sign reading, “Local. Trusted. Defunded.”

“We’re not backing down,” the station said in a fundraising message. “But we can’t do it without you. Donate now to keep public media strong and independent.”

(CNN)

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