SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, USA: A man opened fire inside of a church in a small community in south Texas on Sunday, killing 26 people and wounding about 20 others in the deadliest mass shooting in the state’s history, the governor said.
Officials didn’t identify the attacker during a news conference Sunday night, but two other officials — one a US official and one in law enforcement — who were briefed on the investigation identified him as Devin Kelley. They spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the investigation.
The US official said Kelley lived in a San Antonio suburb and doesn’t appear to be linked to organized terrorist groups. The official said investigators are looking at social media posts Kelley may have made in the days before Sunday’s attack, including one that appeared to show an AR-15 semiautomatic weapon.
Authorities said a civilian with a gun confronted the attacker and chased him away. The gunman was later found dead in his vehicle along with several weapons.
A Department of Public Safety official said at the news conference that investigators weren’t ready to discuss a possible motive for the attack. He said the dead ranged in age from 5 to 72 years old. Twenty-three were found dead in the church, two were found outside and one died after being taken to a hospital.
Federal law enforcement swarmed the small community 30 miles southeast of San Antonio after the attack to offer assistance, including ATF investigators and members of the FBI’s evidence collection team.
Among those killed was the 14-year-old daughter of the church’s pastor, Frank Pomeroy, and his wife, Sherri. Sherri Pomeroy wrote in a text message to the AP that she and her husband were out of town in two different states when the attack occurred.
“We lost our 14 year old daughter today and many friends,” she wrote. “Neither of us have made it back into town yet to personally see the devastation. I am at the charlotte airport trying to get home as soon as i can.”
The wounded were taken to hospitals. Video on KSAT television showed first responders taking a stretcher from the church to a waiting AirLife helicopter. Eight victims were taken by medical helicopter to the Brooke Army Medical Center, the military hospital said.
Megan Posey, a spokeswoman for Connally Memorial Medical Center, which is in Floresville and about 10 miles from the church, said “multiple” victims were being treated for gunshot wounds. She declined to give a specific number but said it was less than a dozen.
Alena Berlanga, a Floresville resident who was monitoring the chaos on a police scanner and in Facebook community groups, said everyone knows everyone else in the sparsely populated county. Sutherland Springs has only a few hundred residents.
“This is horrific for our tiny little tight-knit town,” said Alena Berlanga. “Everybody’s going to be affected and everybody knows someone who’s affected,” she said.
Regina Rodriguez arrived at the church a couple of hours after the shooting and walked up to the police barricade. She hugged a person she was with. She had been at an amusement park with her children when she heard of the shooting.
She said her father, 51-year-old Richard Rodriguez, attends the church every Sunday, and she hadn’t been able to reach him. She said she feared the worst.
Nick Uhlig, 34, is a church member who didn’t go Sunday morning because he was out late Saturday night. He said his cousins were at the church and that his family was told at least one of them, a woman with three children and pregnant with another, is among the dead. He said he hadn’t heard specific news about the other.
“We just gathered to bury their grandfather on Thursday,” he said. “This is the only church here. We have Bible study, men’s Bible study, vacation Bible school.”
“Somebody went in and started shooting,” he said, shaking his head and taking a long drag of his cigarette.
President Donald Trump tweeted from Japan, where is his on an Asian trip, that he was monitoring the situation. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott called the shooting an “evil act,” and promised “more details” from the state’s Department of Public Safety soon.
Sutherland Springs is in a rural area where communities are small and tight-knit. The area is known for its annual peanut festival in Floresville, which was most recently held last month.
“We’re shocked. Shocked and dismayed,” said state Sen. Judith Zaffirini, a Laredo Democrat whose district includes Sutherland Springs. “It’s especially shocking when it’s such a small, serene area. These rural areas, they are so beautiful and so loving.”
Zaffirini said she had called several county and local officials but not been able to get through and didn’t have any firm details.
The church is a white, wood-framed building with a double-door at the entrance and a Texas flag on a pole at the front area. A morning worship service was scheduled for 11 a.m. The first news reports of the shooting were between noon and 12:30 p.m.
The church has posted videos of its Sunday services on a YouTube channel, raising the possibility that the shooting was captured on video.
In the most recent service, posted Oct. 29, Frank Pomeroy parked a motorcycle in front of his lectern and used it as a metaphor in his sermon for having faith in forces that can’t be seen, whether it be gravity or God.
“I don’t look at the moment, I look at where I’m going and look at what’s out there ahead of me,” Pomeroy said. “I’m choosing to trust in the centripetal forces and the things of God he’s put around me.”
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Associated Press writers Sadie Gurman and Eric Tucker in Washington, Nomaan Merchant in Houston, Diana Heidgerd in Dallas and Michael Balsamo in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
26 killed in church attack in Texas’ deadliest mass shooting
26 killed in church attack in Texas’ deadliest mass shooting
UK leader Starmer slams ‘lies and misinformation’ after attacks from Elon Musk
- Tesla CEO has taken an intense and erratic interest in British politics since the center-left Labour Party was elected in July
- Musk has accused Starmer of failing to bring perpetrators to justice when he was England’s director of public prosecutions between 2008 and 2013
LONDON: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday condemned “lies and misinformation” that he said are undermining UK democracy, in response to a barrage of attacks on his government from Elon Musk.
The billionaire Tesla CEO has taken an intense and erratic interest in British politics since the center-left Labour Party was elected in July. Musk has used his social network, X, to call for a new election and demand Starmer be imprisoned. On Monday he posted an online poll for his 210 million followers on the proposition: “America should liberate the people of Britain from their tyrannical government.”
Asked about Musk’s comments during a question session at a hospital near London, Starmer criticized “those that are spreading lies and misinformation as far and as wide as possible,” particularly opposition Conservative politicians in Britain who have echoed some of Musk’s claims.
Musk often posts on X about the UK, retweeting criticism of Starmer and the hashtag TwoTierKeir -– shorthand for an unsubstantiated claim that Britain has “two-tier policing” with far-right protesters treated more harshly than pro-Palestinian or Black Lives Matter demonstrators. During summer anti-immigrant violence across the UK he tweeted that “civil war is inevitable.”
Recently Musk has focused on child sexual abuse, particularly a series of cases that rocked northern England towns in which groups of men, largely from Pakistani backgrounds, were tried for grooming and abusing dozens of girls. The cases have been used by far-right activists to link child abuse to immigration, and to accuse politicians of covering up the “grooming gangs” out of a fear of appearing racist.
Musk has posted a demand for a new public inquiry into the cases. A huge, seven-year inquiry was held under the previous Conservative government, though many of the 20 recommendations it made in 2022 — including compensation for abuse victims — have yet to be implemented. Starmer’s government said it would act on them as quickly as possible.
Musk also has accused Starmer of failing to bring perpetrators to justice when he was England’s director of public prosecutions between 2008 and 2013.
Starmer defended his record as chief prosecutor, saying he had reopened closed cases and “changed the whole prosecution approach” to child sexual exploitation.
He also condemned language used by Musk about Jess Phillips, a government minister responsible for combating violence against women and girls. Musk called Phillips a “rape genocide apologist” and said she deserved to be in prison.
“When the poison of the far-right leads to serious threats to Jess Phillips and others, then in my book, a line has been crossed,” Starmer said. “I enjoy the cut and thrust of politics, the robust debate that we must have, but that’s got to be based on facts and truth, not on lies.”
Musk has also called for the release of Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, a far-right activist who goes by the name Tommy Robinson and is serving a prison sentence for contempt of court.
Starmer said people “cheerleading Tommy Robinson … are trying to get some vicarious thrill from street violence that people like Tommy Robinson promote.”
Starmer largely avoided mentioning Musk by name in his responses, likely wary of giving him more of a spotlight — or of angering Musk ally Donald Trump, who is due to be inaugurated as US president on Jan. 20.
Musk’s incendiary interventions are a growing worry for governments elsewhere in Europe, too. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, another target of the X owner’s ire, said he is staying “cool” over critical personal comments made by Musk, but finds it worrying that the US billionaire makes the effort to get involved in Germany’s election by endorsing the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
Starmer said the main issue was not Musk’s posts on X, but “what are politicians here doing to stand up for our democracy?”
He said he was concerned about Conservative politicians in Britain “so desperate for attention they are amplifying what the far right are saying.”
“Once we lose the anchor that truth matters … then we are on a very slippery slope,” he said.
While some Conservatives, including party leader Kemi Badenoch, have echoed Musk’s points, the main UK beneficiary of his interest has been Reform UK, the hard-right party led by Nigel Farage that has just five seats in the 650-seat House of Commons but big expansion plans. Farage said last month that Musk was considering making a multimillion-dollar donation to the party.
But Farage is critical of Tommy Robinson, refusing to let him join Reform, and on Sunday Musk posted: “The Reform Party needs a new leader. Farage doesn’t have what it takes.”
Farage tweeted in response: “Well, this is a surprise! Elon is a remarkable individual but on this I am afraid I disagree.”
Emergency demonstration outside UK Parliament calls for action to protect Palestinian health workers
Emergency demonstration outside UK Parliament calls for action to protect Palestinian health workers
- Event in wake of reports of intensified assaults on Gaza’s healthcare system
LONDON: An emergency demonstration organized by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and its partners took place opposite the UK Parliament buildings in London on Monday.
Thousands attended the rally, demanding immediate action from MPs to safeguard Gaza’s health workers and medical infrastructure amid escalating attacks by Israel, according to organizers.
Prominent speakers expected at the rally included MPs Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell, alongside healthcare professionals and civil society representatives.
The demonstration followed recent reports of intensified assaults on Gaza’s healthcare system.
Kamal Adwan Hospital, including its neonatal unit, was recently destroyed in northern Gaza, and the Indonesian Hospital is under siege amid a forced evacuation.
Palestinian healthcare workers have been allegedly targeted, with scores killed and hundreds detained — including Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of Kamal Adwan — amid accusations of inhumane treatment and the torture of detainees.
The International Court of Justice has identified Israel’s actions as a plausible case of genocide.
Under international humanitarian law, hospitals are especially protected, and attacks on healthcare facilities may constitute war crimes, with activists critical of the UK government for continuing to supply arms and extend political, diplomatic, and economic support to Israel.
Ben Jamal, director of the PSC, has condemned the British government’s stance.
He said: “Israel has been given impunity by the UK government to commit war crime after war crime over the last 15 months. We hoped this barbarity and the government’s support for it had a limit, a red line which could not be crossed, but we have not seen it yet.
“To attack and destroy hospitals, to target and kill medical staff and patients within them, has no possible justification and is completely unacceptable.
“These are crimes for which Israel will have to answer in world courts, but the UK government must also face its own reckoning for shamefully aiding and abetting Israel’s carnage.”
Still awaiting thanks for stopping extremists in Sahel, Macron says
- Donald Trump knows that he has a solid ally in France, he says
PARIS: France’s President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday he was still waiting for Africa’s Sahel states to thank Paris for stopping them falling into the hands of militants and he dismissed suggestions his country had been forced out of the region.
Speaking to French ambassadors at an annual conference on foreign policy for 2025, Macron said France had been right to intervene in 2013 to fight militants even if those same states had now moved away from French military support.
“I think that they forgot to thank us, but that’s ok, it will come in time,” Macron said ironically.
French troops have in recent years pulled out of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso after successive military coups and are in the process of withdrawing from Chad, Senegal and Ivory Coast.
“None of them would have a sovereign state if the French army had not deployed in this region,” Macron said.
Macron dismissed the notion that Paris had been kicked out of the region, saying it had decided to re-organize its strategy.
“No, France is not on the back foot in Africa, it is just lucid and reorganizing itself,” he said.
Macron extended an olive branch to US President-elect Donald Trump, declaring that France is “a solid ally” as he outlined his vision for global diplomacy in 2025 during his address to French ambassadors.
“Donald Trump knows that he has a solid ally in France, an ally he does not underestimate, one who believes in Europe and carries a lucid ambition for the transatlantic relationship,” Macron said at the Elysee Palace, emphasizing France’s commitment to fostering cooperation while urging European nations to fortify their unity and resilience.
“If we decide to be weak and defeatist, there is little chance we will be respected by the United States under President Trump,” he warned.
Macron’s speech, delivered against a backdrop of geopolitical turmoil, laid out France’s foreign policy priorities, spanning the Ukraine war, European defense, and the Middle East.
China’s top diplomat heads to Africa as West’s attention dwindles
- “China firmly believes that Africa has never been a forgotten continent, but rather a source of vitality and a land full of development potential,” Guo Jiakun, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, told a regular news conference on Monday
BEIJING: China’s top diplomat began his annual New Year tour of Africa on Sunday, maintaining a 35-year-long tradition, to quietly advance Beijing’s already sizeable influence across the resource-rich continent as Europe’s presence wanes and America’s wavers.
While global capitals and investors brace for the return of US President-elect Donald Trump to the White House, and wars in Ukraine and the Middle East and domestic politics keep German and French ministers occupied, Foreign Minister Wang Yi being in Namibia, the Republic of Congo, Chad and Nigeria highlights the consistency of China’s engagement with Africa, analysts say.
Wang’s visit through to Saturday also comes as the world’s No. 2 economy ramps up its financial support for the debt-laden continent and looks to strike more critical minerals deals and find markets to absorb its exports.
“The decision on which countries to go to each year rarely follows any external logic,” said Eric Orlander, co-founder of the China-Global South Project. “But it resonates in Africa as a reminder of China’s consistent commitment to the continent, in contrast to the approaches of the US, UK and EU.”
“China firmly believes that Africa has never been a forgotten continent, but rather a source of vitality and a land full of development potential,” Guo Jiakun, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, told a regular news conference on Monday.
SPEEDREAD
While global capitals and investors brace for the return of US President-elect Donald Trump to the White House, and wars in Ukraine and the Middle East and domestic politics keep German and French ministers occupied, Foreign Minister Wang Yi being in Namibia, the Republic of Congo, Chad and Nigeria highlights the consistency of China’s engagement with Africa, analysts say.
As China’s economy slows, Africa offers a much-needed avenue for its state-owned infrastructure firms struggling for projects as indebted local governments hold off on spending, and a market for its electric vehicles and solar panels, areas where the US and EU say it has over-capacity.
Africa’s 50-plus votes at the UN could also help advance Beijing’s efforts to reshape multilateral institutions and reinterpret global norms so that they are more in line with its interests, particularly on issues such as human rights.
While current US President Joe Biden’s December trip to Angola was his only visit to sub-Saharan Africa in his presidency, China puts Africa at the front of its diplomatic calendar.
“China has become central to Africa’s policy, as an actor and an inspiration,” said Hannah Ryder, founder of Development Reimagined, an African-owned consultancy, referring to how candidates vying to chair the African Union Commission have talked up Beijing’s ability to improve Africa’s manufacturing capabilities and China’s track record in mass education ahead of February’s election. The commission is the secretariat of the 55-nation African Union.
Wang’s decision to visit the Republic of Congo, which this year takes over as co-chair of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation that sets the agenda for China-Africa relations, also points to China’s commitment to implementing the outcomes of last year’s summit, Ryder said, where China pledged $51 billion in fresh financial assistance.
Beijing is also beginning to make its presence felt on pressing regional security issues, analysts say, which partly explains why Wang will travel to Chad.
France last month began the withdrawal of its military from the Central African country, after its government unexpectedly ended a defense cooperation pact that had made it a key Western ally in the fight against militants in the region.
“China has been a reliable and stable partner for the new military juntas in the Sahel and West Africa,” Orland said.
“For the French and US, who see a dilution of Western power in the region, China’s presence is seen as ‘controversial,’ but it’s a very different view from African perspectives.”
Mozambique protest leader says he will return from exile
- Thousands of Mozambicans have fled into neighboring Malawi and Eswatini since the unrest started, according to authorities, prompting alarm from the UN
MAPUTO: The Mozambique opposition leader who has led more than two months of deadly protests against disputed election results from outside the country announced on Sunday he would return ahead of the inauguration of the new president.
Venancio Mondlane, who left Mozambique after his lawyer was gunned down on Oct. 19, said in a Facebook live address he would arrive at Maputo’s Mavalane airport on Thursday.
From self-exile in an unknown location, he called for demonstrations against the results of the Oct. 9 election, which he says were rigged in favor of the ruling Frelimo party in power for 50 years.
The protests so far have been met with a tough police crackdown. The violence has left around 300 people dead, according to a tally by a local rights group, with authorities also reporting looting and vandalism. “If they are killing my brothers, they are murdering my brothers, then I will be there,” Mondlane said.
FASTFACTS
• From self-exile in an unknown location, Venancio Mondlane called for demonstrations against the results of the Oct. 9 election.
• The protests so have been met with a tough police crackdown. The violence has left around 300 people dead.
• Final official results of the poll said Mondlane took 24 percent of the presidential vote compared to 65 percent for the Frelimo candidate.
“If it’s for me, if it’s because of Venancio, then Venancio will be, on Thursday ... at Mavalane International Airport,” he said.
Final official results of the poll said Mondlane took 24 percent of the presidential vote compared to 65 percent for the Frelimo candidate, Daniel Chapo.
Mondlane, 50, insists the election was stolen from him and that another count said he was the winner. Several international observer missions have also said there were irregularities.
Chapo, 47, is due to be sworn in on January 15, taking over from President Filipe Nyusi at the end of his two-term limit. His Frelimo has ruled the country since independence from Portugal in 1975.
Mondlane, a charismatic speaker who appeals to Mozambique’s disenchanted youth, appeared to shrug off criminal and civil charges that the authorities have laid against him, including for damages caused during protests by his supporters.
“You can do whatever you want,” he said, addressing the authorities. “If you want to murder, murder. If you want to arrest, arrest too. I will be there.”
The opposition leader has previously claimed there had been attempts to assassinate him.
While Mondlane has been maintaining rejection of the results and his call for “electoral truth,” the leaders of the main political parties have agreed to take their seats in the new parliament, even if they say there were irregularities in the election.
Nyusi has called for dialogue among the parties to resolve the dispute.
On Dec. 27, Chapo called for “non-violence” and “unity,” saying several police officers had died during the clashes.
The unrest has caused major losses to Mozambique’s economy, stopping cross-border trade. Shipping, mining and industry has also been affected.
Regional grouping the Southern African Development Community was concerned that the situation “may jeopardize peace and security for the country concerned and the region as a whole,” said Tanzanian President Samia Hassan at a meeting Sunday focused on Mozambique.
“For the last couple of weeks, we have witnessed the spread of violent protests that have caused massive harm to human life, affected economic activities and disrupted cross-border trade,” said Hassan, who chaired the meeting of the SADC’s security troika.
Thousands of Mozambicans have fled into neighboring Malawi and Eswatini since the unrest started, according to authorities, prompting alarm from the UN.
“Refugees and civilians are facing immense risks, losing their livelihoods and relying on humanitarian assistance,” said Chansa Kapaya, UNHCR’s regional director for southern Africa, on Dec. 31.
“While we are grateful for the generosity of Malawi and Eswatini, immediate support is crucial to tackle the worsening crisis and prevent further suffering.”
