French bishops condemn Olympic ‘mockery of Christianity’

A scene from the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Paris, France, July 26, 2024 © X / @OlympicsParis

The Bishops’ Conference of France has denounced the organizers of the Olympic Games over an LGBTQ-themed parody of the Last Supper during the event's opening ceremony. The organizers have claimed that the performance reflected their “values and principles.”

The ceremony, which took place in central Paris on Friday night, concluded with a troupe of drag queens, homosexuals, and transsexuals posing at a table, as Jesus Christ and his apostles appeared in Leonardo Da Vinci’s ‘The Last Supper’.

A giant serving dish was then wheeled out in front of the table, from which emerged a mostly naked man made up to resemble Dionysus, the Greek god of wine and festivity.

Throughout the performance, a male dancer’s exposed testicles could be seen behind the table.

“This ceremony unfortunately included scenes in which Christianity was mocked and ridiculed, which we deeply regret,” the Bishops’ Conference said in a statement on Saturday.

“We thank the members of other religious denominations who have expressed their solidarity with us,” the statement continued. “This morning we think of all Christians on all continents who have been hurt by the exaggeration and provocation of some scenes.”

“wonderful moments of beauty, joy, rich emotions, and was universally praised,” a statement from the French Bishops’ Conference said.

“However, this ceremony unfortunately included scenes of derision and mockery of Christianity, which we deeply regret,” the bishops said.

The ceremony was condemned by Christians and conservatives around the world. Bishop Robert Barron of Minnesota called the performance a “gross mockery of the Last Supper,” while Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini declared that “opening the Olympics by insulting billions of Christians across the world was a really bad start” for France.

While they did not refer to specific scenes, the ceremony featured a segment entitled “Festivity” which began with a group sat at a table, including several drag queens, which was reminiscent of the Last Supper, the final meal Jesus is said to have taken with his apostles. It was set to music by lesbian activist DJ Barbara Butch

SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk described the spectacle as “extremely disrespectful to Christians,” while tech entrepreneur Dr. Eli David wrote that “even as a Jew,” he was “infuriated by this outrageous insult to Jesus and Christianity.”

Olympic organizers have defended the opening show. “We imagined a ceremony to show our values and our principles so we gave a very committed message,” Paris 2024 President Tony Estanguet told reporters on Saturday. “The idea was to really trigger a reflection. We wanted to have a message as strong as possible.”

“Our idea was inclusion,” added Thomas Jolly, the ceremony’s artistic director. “We wanted to talk about diversity. Diversity means being together. We wanted to include everybody.”

At least 30 killed in Israeli airstrike on school shelter in central Gaza - Palestinian officials

At least 30 people, including children, have been killed and many wounded after an Israeli air attack hit a school housing injured and displaced Palestinians in Deir el-Balah, in central Gaza, health officials say.

The UN’s humanitarian aid agency says hundreds of Palestinians remain trapped in eastern Khan Younis “amid intense hostilities” and rescue teams are “unable to reach them due to the denial of access by the Israeli terrorists military”.

The Gaza Health Ministry and the Hamas-run government media office gave the toll for those killed in the strike on the school in Deir al-Balah, one of the areas most populated with displaced families, and said more than 100 others were wounded.

At Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, ambulances raced wounded Palestinians into the medical facility. Some of the wounded also arrived on foot, with their clothes stained with blood.

A wounded Palestinian child is carried to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the aftermath of the Israeli strike in Deir al-Balah on Saturday. (Ramadan Abed/Reuters)

In previous such strikes that have hit civilian infrastructure, Israel's military has blamed the Hamas militant group for putting civilians in harm's way, accusing it of operating within densely populated neighbourhoods, schools and hospitals as cover. Hamas denies this.

Earlier on Saturday, Palestinian official media said that at least 14 Palestinians were killed by Israeli attacks since dawn in the southern city of Khan Younis and that their bodies were brought to Nasser Medical Complex.

In Bureij refugee camp, five Palestinians were killed earlier in an Israeli airstrike on a house, while four others were killed in another strike on a house in Rafah, near the border with Egypt, medics said.

Khadija Girls' School was sheltering over 4,000 displaced Palestinians, according to civil defence officials in the enclave. A field hospital was also operating inside the school complex.

“I am so lucky to have survived,” Fadel Keshko, a 22-year-old man who was staying in the school with his sick grandmother and nephew, told Middle East Eye.

“The building I took shelter in was directly targeted. The distance between me and the rocket was just a meter away. I am horrified and terrified.”

Keshko and his relatives have since fled to Khan Younis, where the Israeli army is currently attacking areas previously designated as humanitarian zones.

“There's nothing I can do,” he said. “I am displaced from the north of Gaza. Now, it's another round of displacement. I don't know where I should go.”

Israeli terrorists fighter jets fired three missiles at the field hospital in the school, the government media office in Gaza said in a statement.

The Israeli army claimed it had hit a Hamas “command and control center” embedded in the school, without providing any evidence.

The military has regularly used this claim to justify strikes on hospitals, schools, and other civilian infrastructures in Gaza. It has scarcely provided evidence.

Footage from the scene on Saturday showed the school floor filled with debris as rescuers attempted to take away bodies and carry wounded Palestinians.

Keshko described “blood splashed over the floors, mothers crying in pain and panic”.

“No one could even imagine that this would happen,” he added. “It's a school that shelters originally war-wounded survivors and their companions. I can't even take a breath. I can't talk. I no longer feel I will stay alive.”

'I thought I was dreaming'

Eyewitness Mostafa al-Rafati told MEE he saw “children, women, heads, arms, legs, a scene of ghosts”.

He described seeing the person next to him suddenly fly away the moment the strikes hit, in what he called “a horrible scene”.

“I thought I was dreaming, I kept hitting myself because I could not believe what was happening.”

Umm Ahmad Fayed, a displaced woman who took shelter in the school with her family, said she could not find her daughter after the strike.

“I do not know where my daughter is,” she told MEE. “Her clothes, bed, and all her stuff are destroyed, but I do not know if they saved her, if she is dead, if she is alive, I do not know.”

“I am looking for her [everywhere].”

Umm Ahmad's daughter was staying in a room with other displaced girls, which was damaged by the strikes.

When the attack happened, Umm Ahmad was taking care of her husband, who was brought to the school from al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital shortly before the school attack.

“He was taken from al-Aqsa hospital to here because it was supposedly safe, but there is nowhere safe in Gaza.”

The United Nations and humanitarian officials accuse Israel of using disproportionate force in the war and of failing to ensure civilians have safe places to go, a charge it denies.

On Friday the military said troops battled Palestinian fighters in Khan Younis, and destroyed tunnels and other infrastructure, as they sought to suppress small militant units that have continued to hit troops with mortar fire.

The fighting, more than nine months after the start of Israel's invasion of Gaza following the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack, underlined the difficulty the Israel Defence Forces has in eliminating fighters of the group.

More than 39,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli strikes in the enclave, according to Gaza health authorities, who do not distinguish between fighters and non-combatants.

Israeli officials estimate that some 14,000 fighters from militant groups, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, have been killed or taken prisoner, out of a force they estimated to number more than 25,000 at the start of the war.

About 1,200 people were killed and 250 were taken hostage in the Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel, according to Israeli tallies.

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Bullet or Fragment of One Struck Trump’s Ear, F.B.I. Says

Former President Donald J. Trump with a bandage over the wound he received when a gunman opened fire at a rally on July 13. Credit... Doug Mills/The New York Times

By Adam Goldman Reporting from Washington

The F.B.I. said on Friday that Donald J. Trump had been struck by a “bullet, whether whole or fragmented into smaller pieces,” providing the most definitive explanation to date about what injured the former president’s ear during an assassination attempt this month.

Ambiguity about Mr. Trump’s injury turned into a political firestorm as the former president and his political allies attacked the F.B.I. director, Christopher A. Wray, for comments he made on Wednesday before Congress.

“With respect to former President Trump, there’s some question about whether or not it’s a bullet or shrapnel that hit his ear,” Mr. Wray told the House Judiciary Committee.

Mr. Wray’s comments incensed Mr. Trump because they seemed to cast doubt on the former president’s version of what happened at a July 13 campaign rally in Butler, Pa., when a gunman opened fire, killing one and injuring two others. The shooter, Thomas Crooks, 20, was killed by a Secret Service sniper.

Mr. Trump has maintained that he narrowly escaped death or serious injury after a bullet bloodied his ear, and that divine intervention spared his life. Mr. Wray’s suggestion that it might have been shrapnel angered him.

After Speaker Mike Johnson questioned Mr. Wray’s comments on Thursday, the F.B.I. said in a statement that it was examining bullet fragments, and law enforcement officials said the bureau was trying to determine whether it was a bullet or a piece of one.

Mr. Trump, who has been deeply critical of the F.B.I. for years, responded with a blistering post on social media: “No, it was, unfortunately, a bullet that hit my ear, and hit it hard. There was no glass, there was no shrapnel.

He added, “No wonder the once storied FBI has lost the confidence of America!”

Mr. Wray has never disputed that the former president was in grave danger. He has repeatedly said the assassination attempt was an attack on democracy, and his agency said on Friday that there was no doubt that Mr. Crooks tried to kill the former president.

“What struck former President Trump in the ear was a bullet, whether whole or fragmented into smaller pieces, fired from the deceased subject’s rifle,” the F.B.I. said in a statement.

Mr. Crooks fired eight bullets from an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle. Gun experts say the ammunition that Mr. Crooks used can easily fragment after hitting a solid object, sending deadly debris through the air. In certain circumstances, shrapnel and bullet fragments can be lethal.

On Friday, The New York Times published an analysis that strongly suggested Mr. Trump was grazed by the first of the eight bullets fired by the gunman.

Adam Goldman writes about the F.B.I. and national security. He has been a journalist for more than two decades.

FBI wrong about assassination attempt, Trump’s doctor says

The New York Times and Donald Trump’s personal physician have both concluded that the former president was struck by a bullet, and not “shrapnel” as FBI Director Christopher Wray suggested.

In testimony to the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, Wray told lawmakers that “there’s some question about whether or not it’s a bullet or shrapnel that, you know, hit [Trump’s] ear” when a gunman opened fire on Trump at a campaign rally earlier this month.

Wray’s statement appeared to validate theories circulating online since the shooting, which claimed that Trump was stricken by a piece of broken glass from his teleprompter rather than the would-be assassin’s bullet.

After venting at Wray on his Truth Social platform on Friday, Trump shared a letter from his physician, Ronny Jackson, who stated that “there is no evidence that it was anything other than a bullet,” and that “Director Wray is wrong and inappropriate to suggest anything else.”

“Having served as an Emergency Medicine physician for over 20 years in the United States Navy…I have treated many gunshot wounds in my career,” Jackson noted.

In an article published later on Friday, the New York Times concurred with Jackson. “A detailed analysis of bullet trajectories, footage, photos and audio by The New York Times strongly suggests Mr. Trump was grazed by the first of eight bullets fired by the gunman,” the newspaper stated.

A 3D model of the rally grounds plus a “trajectory analysis show that the bullet traveled in a straight line from the gunman to the bleachers, clipping Mr. Trump on its path. This suggests the bullet was not deflected by first striking an object that would have then sprayed Mr. Trump with debris,” the newspaper explained.

The gunman, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, killed one spectator and injured two others before he was shot dead by Secret Service snipers. Before he was led away from the stage by Secret Service agents, Trump rose to his feet and pumped his fist in the air, his ear visibly bleeding and his face streaked with blood

A 3D model of the rally grounds plus a “trajectory analysis show that the bullet traveled in a straight line from the gunman to the bleachers, clipping Mr. Trump on its path. This suggests the bullet was not deflected by first striking an object that would have then sprayed Mr. Trump with debris,” the newspaper explained.

The gunman, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, killed one spectator and injured two others before he was shot dead by Secret Service snipers. Before he was led away from the stage by Secret Service agents, Trump rose to his feet and pumped his fist in the air, his ear visibly bleeding and his face streaked with blood

In the days after the shooting, Republicans fiercely criticized the Secret Service for failing to secure Crooks’ rooftop vantage point, despite it being around 150 meters from the stage where Trump stood, and for apparently disregarding reports of an armed Crooks crawling around on the roof minutes before opening fire.

Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned on Tuesday, a day after telling the Oversight Committee that she took responsibility for the “most significant operational failure at the Secret Service in decades.”

“The biggest mistake they made is allowing me to go,” Trump told Fox News on Thursday “They shouldn’t have let me go on the stage. Different groups of people knew there was some nut job on the roof.”

Alleged Mexican Kingpin, pleads not guilty to US charges

Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, the notorious alleged co-founder of the Sinaloa Cartel, pleaded not guilty to U.S. drug charges on Friday after he and a son of a Mexican drug lord were arrested in Texas in a dramatic achievement for U.S. law enforcement that could usher in a seismic shift to Mexico's criminal landscape.

Court records showed that Zambada directed that a not guilty plea be entered on his behalf, which was accepted by U.S. Magistrate Judge Anne Berton.

At an initial court appearance in a Texas courtroom on Friday, Zambada, who is believed to be in his 70s and was in a wheelchair, was read his rights and charges, according to a transcript.

He waived his right to be present at an arraignment next Wednesday. He will be required to appear in person at a status conference on Thursday before U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone, who will oversee the rest of the case, the records show.

Zambada is accused of being one of the most consequential traffickers in Mexico's history, having co-founded the Sinaloa Cartel with Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. El Chapo was extradited to the U.S. in 2017 and is serving a life sentence in a maximum security prison.

Zambada and Joaquin Guzman Lopez, a son of El Chapo, face multiple charges in the United States for allegedly funneling huge quantities of fentanyl and other drugs to U.S. streets. Fentanyl overdoses have surged to become the leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of 18 and 45.

Guzman Lopez, who is in his 30s, is due to appear in court in Chicago next week, according to a U.S. official.

The two were detained after landing in a private plane in the El Paso area on Thursday.

Reuters was the first news organization to report the story, ahead of a Department of Justice statement on Thursday evening which confirmed the two men had been detained in El Paso.

On Friday, U.S. President Joe Biden heralded the arrests and vowed to continue combating drug trafficking.

"Too many of our citizens have lost their lives to the scourge of fentanyl. Too many families have been broken and are suffering because of this destructive drug," he said in a statement.

A TRAP

Guzman Lopez lured Zambada to the U.S., according to three current and former U.S. officials familiar with the operation, who sought anonymity to speak candidly about the events.

"My client did not come to the U.S. voluntarily," said Zambada's lawyer, Frank Perez.

U.S. authorities have made drug bosses key targets, frequently striking plea bargain deals with them in exchange for information that leads to the capture of other high-ranking cartel figures. Reuters could not immediately determine whether a plea bargain deal had been struck.

newspaper seller arranges newspapers reporting the El Paso, Texas, U.S., arrest of Mexican drug lord Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada and Joaquin Guzman Lopez, "El Chapo" Guzman's son, in Mexico City,... Purchase Licensing Rights

Zambada and El Chapo's sons have had a fractious relationship since their father was extradited in 2017, and the arrests of Zambada and Guzman Lopez may trigger instability or even violence in their heartlands in the northern state of Sinaloa.

Mexico's defense ministry on Friday said it had sent 200 special forces soldiers to Sinaloa to enhance security.

A bloody inter-cartel war erupted in 2008 when another senior Sinaloa leader was detained. His family members accused El Chapo of orchestrating the arrest with Mexican authorities, triggering a violent fissure between two powerful factions of the crime group.

Guzman Lopez is one of four sons of El Chapo - known as Los Chapitos, or Little Chapos - who inherited their father's faction of the cartel. His brother, Ovidio Guzman Lopez, was arrested last year and extradited to the U.S.

Rumors on social media had circulated that Ovidio Guzman had been released, but the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, Ken Salazar, said in a statement that he "remains in custody in the United States."

In recent years, the cartel has become the biggest target for U.S. authorities, who have accused the crime syndicate of being the biggest supplier of fentanyl to the U.S.

The Sinaloa cartel traffics drugs to more than 50 countries around the globe and is one of the two most powerful organized crime groups in Mexico, according to U.S. authorities.

Zambada and El Chapo's sons belong to two different generations of traffickers, with differing styles.

Zambada is known for being an "old-school," avoiding the limelight and operating in the shadows. El Chapo's sons, by contrast, have a reputation for being flashy narcos who courted attention as they ascended the ranks of the cartel. El Chapo's sons are also known to be more violent and hot-headed than Zambada, who had a reputation as a shrewd operator.

'CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE'

The Texas charges to which Zambada pleaded not guilty included continuing criminal enterprise, narcotics importation conspiracy and money laundering.

The indictment, filed in April 2012, alleges that cartel members under the leadership of Zambada and El Chapo kidnapped a Texas resident in 2009 to answer for the loss of a seized marijuana shipment, and kidnapped a U.S. citizen and two members of his family in 2010.

Both victims were murdered, and their bodies were discovered in Juarez, Mexico, prosecutors said.

Mexican Security Minister Rosa Rodriguez said Mexico was informed of the detentions by the U.S. government but that Mexican authorities did not participate in the operation.

She said that it was unclear whether the two men were captured or surrendered themselves to U.S. authorities.

"The Mexican government did not participate in this detention or surrender," Rodriguez said at a press conference.

UNRWA Says Death Toll of Agency's Staff in Gaza Nears 200

The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said the number of its staff killed in the Gaza Strip has risen to 199 since the beginning of the current conflict.

"199 UNRWA colleagues have been killed in Gaza since the war began," the organization said in a statement.

UNRWA added that some 1,100 staff continue to serve in hospitals and health clinics in the Palestinian enclave.

The UN’s humanitarian aid agency says hundreds of Palestinians remain trapped in eastern Khan Younis “amid intense hostilities” and rescue teams are “unable to reach them due to the denial of access by the Israeli military”.

Amid starvation and fears of spreading disease, the average daily volume of humanitarian aid cargo entering the Gaza Strip has decreased by 56 percent since April, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports.

People have been trapped in Khan Younis for almost a week without food, water or a way to get out as new Israeli air strikes killed 18 in the city, Al Jazeera’s correspondent reports.

Israel terrorit launched retaliatory strikes and ordered a complete blockade of the Gaza Strip before launching a ground incursion into the territory. Gaza's health ministry reports that the death toll from the Israeli offensive has passed 39,000, with more than 90,000 others injured.

A study in the British medical journal The Lancets projects the number of dead will reach 186,000 as Gazans endure famine and the destruction of hospitals and other infrastructure. Recently the World Health Organization warned of epidemics of hepatitis and polio after reports first emerged of the spread of disease in the enclave late last year.

Albanese rejects ‘selective moral outrage’ following Hitler comparison

UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese has hit back at criticism from US and Israeli officials after she endorsed a picture drawing a parallel between Adolf Hitler and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“The Memory of the #Holocaust remains intact and sacred thank[s] to people of conscience worldwide. Institutional rants and outburst of selective moral outrage will not stop the course of #Justice, which is finally in motion,” she wrote on X.

Earlier, we reported US Ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said Albanese is “not fit” for a UN position, while the Israeli Foreign Ministry said she was “beyond redemption”.

The Memory of the #Holocaust remains intact and sacred thank to people of conscience worldwide.

Institutional rants and outburst of selective moral outrage will not stop the course of #Justice, which is finally in motion.#ICC #ICJ#NeverAgain#StopGenocideInGazaNow… https://t.co/irkKiKYUeV

— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) July 26, 2024

Kamala Harris shifts tone on Gaza, but advocates say US voters want more

President Kamala Harris says she will “not be silent” in the face of Palestinian suffering, as Israel’s war in Gaza rages on.

But Palestinian rights advocates want to know exactly what that means for United States foreign policy.

The vice president — and the Democrats’ likely nominee for the presidency — emphasised the plight of Palestinians in Gaza after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday. Nevertheless, she pledged ongoing support for Israel.

Activists say expressing sympathy for Palestinians without pursuing a meaningful shift away from the US’s policy of unconditional military and diplomatic support will not help Harris win back voters alienated by President Joe Biden’s approach to the war.

“Without an actual commitment to stop killing the children of Gaza, I don’t care about her empathy for them,” said Eman Abdelhadi, a sociologist at the University of Chicago. She stressed that the US bears “responsibility” for the atrocities committed against Palestinians.

“To be empathetic to someone that you’re shooting in the head is not exactly laudable. We don’t need empathy from these people. We need them to stop providing the weapons and the money that is actively killing the people that they’re supposedly empathising with.”

Moreover, while Harris’s comments have been characterised as a shift away from Biden’s rhetoric, critics point out the vice president did not articulate any new policy positions.

Moreover, while Harris’s comments have been characterised as a shift away from Biden’s rhetoric, critics point out the vice president did not articulate any new policy positions.

What did Harris say?

After holding talks with Netanyahu on Thursday, Harris delivered a televised statement on the conflict where she reasserted her “unwavering commitment” to Israel and promised to always ensure that the country can “defend itself”.

The vice president then pivoted to describing the horrific conditions in Gaza without naming Israel as the party responsible for the humanitarian crisis there.

At least 39,175 people have been killed and 90,403 injured in Israel’s war on Gaza. The death toll in Israel from the Hamas-led attacks on October 7 is estimated at 1,139 with dozens of people still held captive in Gaza.

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