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Church must bring light to world’s ‘dark nights’: Pope Leo at first mass

Church must bring light to world’s ‘dark nights’: Pope Leo at first mass

The new head of the Catholic Church will be formally installed as pope at a mass on May 18, the Vatican says. Pope Leo XIV has promised to make the Catholic Church a balm for the world’s “dark nights”, as he celebrated his first mass as pontiff less than 24 hours after being elected. Sixty-nine-year-old Leo, the former Cardinal Robert Prevost and the first American pope, delivered the Mass on Friday, flanked by cardinals in the Vatican City’s Sistine Chapel. The new head of the Catholic Church was elected by fellow cardinals on Thursday, following Pope Francis’s death, and has become the first US pontiff in the church’s 2,000-year history. Leo, who now leads the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, acknowledged that the Christian faith is sometimes “considered absurd” and the preserve of “the weak and unintelligent”. “A lack of faith is often tragically accompanied by the loss of meaning in life, the neglect of mercy, appalling violations of human dignity, the crisis of the family and so many other wounds that afflict our society,” he said at the mass, adorned in simple white and gold clothes. He also warned that Jesus cannot be “reduced to a kind of charismatic leader or superman”. Advertisement “This is true not only among non-believers, but also among many baptised Christians, who thus end up living, at this level, in a state of practical atheism,” he said. The new pontiff said he would seek to serve as the “faithful administrator” for the Church as a whole. Leo will be formally installed as pope at a mass on May 18 and will preside over his first general audience on May 21, the Vatican said, with world and religious leaders invited to his formal launch of the papacy. Pope Francis’s inauguration in 2013 attracted a crowd of about 200,000 people. The new pope will also leave senior Vatican officials in their roles for the time being, giving him time to decide before making appointments, the Vatican said. The pope was elected at the end of a two-day conclave that wrapped up on Thursday evening when white smoke billowed from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel. Francis, who died last month at the age of 88, leaves Leo to inherit a number of major challenges, ranging from a budget shortfall to divisions about whether the Church should be more welcoming towards the LGBTQ community and divorcees, and should let women play a greater role in its affairs. Leo was born in Chicago but spent two decades as a missionary in Peru. Before his election, US cardinals were largely written off as papal contenders because of a widespread assumption that the global Church could not be run by a superpower pope. However, since Leo also holds Peruvian citizenship, it is understood that he has knowledge of both the West and the Global South. Advertisement Adblock test (Why?)

Who are the armed groups India accuses Pakistan of backing?

Who are the armed groups India accuses Pakistan of backing?

Tensions are higher between India and Pakistan than they have been in decades as the two countries trade blame for drone attacks on each other’s territory over the past few days. At the heart of the dispute is what India claims is Pakistan’s support for armed separatist groups operating in Kashmir, a region disputed between the two countries. An armed group called The Resistance Front (TRF) claimed responsibility for the Pahalgam attack in Indian-administered Kashmir last month in which 26 people were killed. India alleges that TRF is an offshoot of another Pakistan-based armed group, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and has blamed Pakistan for supporting such groups. Pakistan has denied this. It condemned the attack in April and called for an independent investigation. Here is more about who the armed groups are and the major attacks they’ve claimed or been blamed for. The TRF emerged in 2019 following the Indian government’s suspension of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, stripping Indian-administered Kashmir of its semi-autonomous status. Advertisement However, the group was not widely known before the Pahalgam attack, which it took responsibility for in April via the Telegram messaging app, on which it said it was opposed to the granting of residency permits to “outsiders”. Since the repeal of Article 370, non-Kashmiris have been granted residency permits to settle in Indian-administered Kashmir. This has stoked fears that the Indian government is trying to change the demographics of Kashmir, whose population is nearly all Muslim. Unlike other armed rebel groups in Kashmir, the TRF does not have an Islamic name. However, the Indian government maintains that it is an offshoot of, or a front for, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), a Pakistan-based armed group whose name means “Army of the Pure”. In 2020, TRF started claiming responsibility for minor attacks, including some targeted killings. TRF recruits included rebels from different splinter rebel groups. Indian security agents say they have arrested multiple TRF members since then. According to Indian government records, most armed fighters killed in gunfights in Kashmir were affiliated with the TRF in 2022. The LeT, which calls for the “liberation” of Indian-administered Kashmir, was founded around 1990 by Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, who is also known as Hafiz Saeed. In 2008, armed gunmen opened fire on civilians at several sites in Mumbai, India, killing 166 people. Ajmal Kasab, the only attacker captured alive, said the attackers were members of LeT. Saeed denied any involvement in that attack, however. Kasab was executed by India in 2012. Advertisement India also blamed Pakistani intelligence agencies for the attack. While Pakistan conceded that the attack may have been partly planned on Pakistani soil, it maintained that its government and intelligence agencies were not involved. According to the United Nations, LeT was also involved in a 2001 attack on India’s parliament and a 2006 attack on Mumbai commuter trains that killed 189 people.  On May 7, India launched missile attacks on several cities in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir. One of these cities was Muridke in the Punjab province. India claims that Muridke was the location of the headquarters of the Jamat-ud-Dawa, a charity organisation that New Delhi insists is a front for the LeT. Last week, the Indian army claimed it had struck LeT’s Markaz Taiba camp in Muridke. The army also claimed Kasab had been trained at this camp. Pakistan says LeT has been banned, however. Following an attack on Indian-administered Kashmir’s Pulwama in 2019, Pakistan also reimposed a lapsed ban on Jamat-ud-Dawa. Saeed was arrested in 2019 and is in the custody of the Pakistani government, serving a 31-year prison sentence after being convicted in two “terror financing” cases. Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM), or “The Army of Muhammad”, was formed around 2000 by Masood Azhar, who had been released from Indian prison in 1999. Azhar, who had been arrested on “terrorism” charges, was released in exchange for 155 hostages being held by hijackers of an Indian Airlines plane. Azhar previously fought under the banner of a group called Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, which calls for Kashmir to be united with Pakistan, and has been linked to al-Qaeda. Advertisement According to the UN Security Council, JeM has also had links with al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden and the Taliban. Pakistan banned JeM in 2002 after the group, alongside LeT, was blamed for an attack on the Indian parliament in 2001. The British-born Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, who was convicted of killing US journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002, was also a member of JeM. Pearl was the Wall Street Journal’s South Asia bureau chief. However, a 2011 report released by the Pearl Project at Georgetown University following its own investigation claimed that Pearl had not been murdered by Sheikh. The report instead alleged that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind behind the September 11, 2001 attacks, was responsible. In 2021, a panel of three judges at Pakistan’s Supreme Court ordered Sheikh’s release. Despite the ban, Indian authorities claim the group continues to operate in Bahawalpur, in Pakistan’s Punjab province. On May 7, the Indian army claimed its strikes had also targeted the headquarters of JeM there. In 2019, JeM claimed a suicide bomb attack that killed 40 Indian paramilitary soldiers in Pulwama in Indian-administered Kashmir. Azhar has been arrested by Pakistani authorities twice, but was released and has never been charged. He has since disappeared from the public eye and his current whereabouts are not known. Hizbul-ul-Mujahideen Hizbul-ul-Mujahideen (HuM), or “Party of Holy Fighters” was formed in 1989 by Kashmiri separatist leader Muhammad Ahsan Dar. The group emerged out of the 1988 protests in Kashmir against the Indian government. The group, also called Hizb, has become the largest Indigenous rebel group based in Indian-administered Kashmir. Advertisement Rather than calling for independence, HuM calls for the whole of Kashmir to be allowed to accede to Pakistan. The group has a huge network of fighters in Shopian, Kulgam and Pulwama districts in the south of Indian-administered Kashmir. In 2016, the killing of popular HuM commander Burhan Wani triggered widespread protests in Indian-administered Kashmir, resulting in a crackdown by

Hegseth orders deadline for trans service members to leave military: ‘Out at the DOD’

Hegseth orders deadline for trans service members to leave military: ‘Out at the DOD’

Transgender troops have between 30 and 60 days to self-separate from the military after a court order allowed the ban on their service to move forward, according to a Thursday memo from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. “After a SCOTUS victory for @POTUS, TRANS is out at the DOD,” Hegseth wrote on X, along with a video announcing the new deadline.  Approximately 1,000 service members have self–identified as having gender dysphoria and will begin the voluntary separation process, according to the Pentagon.  Active duty service members have until June 6, one month after the court’s ruling, to leave the military. Reservists have until July 7.  SUPREME COURT STAYS LOWER COURT RULING, ALLOWING TRUMP TRANSGENDER BAN TO PROCEED “The Secretary is encouraged by the Supreme Court’s order staying the lower court’s injunction, allowing the Department of Defense to carry out its policies associated with ‘Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness,’” Pentagon chief spokesperson Sean Parnell said in a statement celebrating the ruling and announcing the new timeline.  “In accordance with policy now reinstated, service members who have a current diagnosis or history of or exhibit symptoms consistent with gender dysphoria may elect to separate voluntarily,” Hegseth said, adding that if they chose not to do so by the deadline, they would be removed “involuntarily, if necessary.” HEGSETH SAYS HE’S SIGNING MEMO ON COMBAT ARMS STANDARDS FOR MEN AND WOMEN The high court ruling was a victory for the White House, even as the justices did not address the underlying merits of the case or President Donald Trump‘s Jan. 27 executive order banning transgender service members from the U.S. military. A lower court had issued an injunction on the policy. The Trump administration argued that delaying the policy could pose a threat to U.S. military readiness. Trump officials have argued that the transgender military policy “furthers the government’s important interests in military readiness, unit cohesion, good order and discipline, and avoiding disproportionate costs.” An executive order signed by Trump in January ordered Hegseth to update medical standards to ensure they “prioritize readiness and lethality” and take action to “end the use of invented and identification-based pronouns” within the DOD. It says that expressing a “gender identity” different from an individual’s sex at birth does not meet military standards.  A categorical ban on transgender service members was lifted in 2014 under then-President Barack Obama. Between Jan. 1, 2016, and May 14, 2021, the DOD reportedly spent approximately $15 million on providing transgender treatments (surgical and nonsurgical) to 1,892 active-duty service members, according to the Congressional Research Service.  The transgender ban is part of a broader push by the new Pentagon leadership to root out any policies related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).  Last month, Hegseth announced that “99.9%” of DEI-related policies had been eliminated at the Defense Department, as he raised standards for fitness tests and moved to ensure the combat fitness test held men and women to the same standards.  Fox News’ Breanne Deppisch and Haley Chi-Sing contributed to this report.

Trump, lawmakers at odds over whether FEMA should be elevated to Cabinet-level agency or completely overhauled

Trump, lawmakers at odds over whether FEMA should be elevated to Cabinet-level agency or completely overhauled

While President Donald Trump wants to gut the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are seeking to elevate FEMA to a Cabinet-level agency.  FEMA is currently housed under the Department of Homeland Security, but the House effort would solidify FEMA as its own separate agency, according to a discussion draft of the legislation released Thursday.  House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Rep. Sam Graves, R-Mo., and committee ranking member Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash., are spearheading the legislation.  Other proposals included in the draft legislation are instructing the Office of Management and Budget to create a centralized website tracking disaster assistance recovery across the federal government, and allowing FEMA to foot the bill for repairs to homes suffering damage in disasters.  Currently, FEMA only covers expenses that make a home livable following disasters.  ‘FEMA IS NOT GOOD’: TRUMP ANNOUNCES AGENCY OVERHAUL DURING VISIT TO NORTH CAROLINA  “By releasing this discussion draft legislation, we hope to engage our colleagues and stakeholders on comprehensive FEMA reform,” Graves said in a Thursday statement. “This draft bill includes substantive changes that will transform FEMA and our emergency programs to be much more state and locally driven – not micro-managed into ineffectiveness by the federal government.” While Trump and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem have voiced support for eradicating FEMA, the former acting administrator of FEMA, Cameron Hamilton, warned against gutting the agency on Wednesday. “I do not believe it is in the best interest of the American people to eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency,” Hamilton told lawmakers on the House Appropriations committee on Wednesday.  “Having said that, I’m not in a position to make a decision,” Hamilton said. “That is a conversation that should be had between the president of the United States and this governing body.” However, Hamilton, who previously served as a hospital corpsman in the U.S. Navy with SEAL Team 8 and started leading FEMA in January, was ousted from his post Thursday.  ACTING FEMA ADMINISTRATOR OUT AFTER PUSHING BACK AGAINST TRUMP’S AGENCY PLANS FEMA confirmed to Fox News Digital Thursday that Hamilton was no longer with the agency.  Days after his inauguration in January, Trump visited North Carolina to oversee the state’s efforts to recover from Hurricane Helene, more than 120 days after the storm struck the state. On the trip, Trump floated plans to gut FEMA, which oversaw the disaster relief efforts.  “I’ll also be signing an executive order to begin the process of fundamentally reforming and overhauling FEMA, or maybe getting rid of FEMA,” Trump told reporters in North Carolina. “I think, frankly, FEMA is not good.” The executive order established a review council to evaluate potential reforms to FEMA, including whether the agency’s bureaucracy restricts its ability to appropriately respond to disasters. Likewise, Trump’s budget proposal includes plans to slash nearly $650 million in FEMA grants.  On Tuesday, Noem told lawmakers that Trump stands by his statements that FEMA’s current setup should be quashed.  “He believes that FEMA and its response in many, many circumstances has failed the American people, and that FEMA as it exists today should be eliminated,” Noem said.