Today saw a tragic school shooting in Türkiye, the second in two days, this time killing 4 people and leaving 20 others injured. The unprecedented event has left a country reeling, while elsewhere, the U.S. ruling regime has ramped up their feud with the Pope, as the Vice President of the country joined in attacking the head of the Catholic church, despite the VP himself identifying as a Catholic. Italy has finally responded to Israeli attacks on UNIFIL peacekeepers by suspending their defence agreement with Israel, becoming just the latest European nation to cut some of their ties with the genocidal state. Meanwhile, in the USA, Democratic lawmakers have introduced a bill that may lead to a removal of the authoritarian Donald Trump using the 25th amendment.
Turkey rocked by two school shootings in two days
An 18-year-old former student opened fire at a vocational high school in Siverek, Şanlıurfa province in southeastern Turkey on Tuesday, wounding 16 people, 10 students, four teachers, a canteen employee and a police officer, before cornered by police and killing himself with the same shotgun. The motive remains unclear. The attacker had no criminal record. Five of the wounded were transferred to a hospital in the provincial capital due to the seriousness of their injuries.
School shootings are rare in Turkey, which makes two in consecutive days a significant shock. A second shooting occurred Wednesday in Maraş. Investigations are ongoing in both cases. No connection between the two incidents has been established.
Italy suspends defence agreement with Israel as European allies break ranks
Giorgia Meloni announced Tuesday that Italy has suspended the automatic renewal of its defence cooperation agreement with Israel, a significant break from a government that has been among Israel’s closest allies in Europe and one of Trump’s most reliable interlocutors on the continent. The agreement, signed in 2003 and renewed automatically every five years, covers military equipment exchange, arms import and export, joint research, and training of military personnel.
The decision followed two incidents in quick succession. On April 8, Israeli forces fired warning shots at a convoy of Italian UNIFIL peacekeepers travelling from Shama to Beirut, damaging at least one vehicle, which led to the government in Rome summoning Israel’s ambassador. On April 13, Israel summoned Italy’s ambassador in return, after Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani visited Beirut and condemned what he called “unacceptable attacks” on Lebanese civilians. Italy has 754 troops in UNIFIL, the second-largest contingent after Indonesia, three of whose peacekeepers were killed by Israeli fire in late March.
JD Vance joins Trump’s feud with the Pope
The Trump-Pope Leo feud has entered a second day of escalation, with Vice President JD Vance now taking a position arguably more aggressive than his boss. Speaking Monday on Fox News, Vance told the Pope to “stick to matters of morality” and leave American public policy to the president. On Tuesday, at a Turning Point USA event at the University of Georgia, he went further: “It’s very, very important for the pope to be careful when he talks about matters of theology. If you’re going to opine on matters of theology, you’ve got to make sure it’s anchored in the truth.” He invoked just war theory, asking: “Was God on the side of the Americans who liberated France from the Nazis?”
Leo holds a doctorate in theology from the Pontifical University of St Thomas Aquinas in Rome. He served as Prior General of the Order of St Augustine for more than a decade. He is the first Augustinian pope in history. The just war tradition Vance invoked was developed in significant part by thinkers within the very order Leo once led.
Trump deleted an AI-generated image depicting himself with apparent divine healing powers after widespread condemnation from Christians, including members of his own coalition. He told reporters it depicted him “as a doctor” and had “to do with the Red Cross.” He refused to apologise to Leo. Bishop Robert Barron, a member of Trump’s own Religious Liberty Commission, posted that “the president owes the Pope an apology,” while Cardinal Tobin said Leo “will continue to speak clearly against war and other offences against human dignity.” Trump won 55% of the Catholic vote in 2024.
IAEA: North Korea is rapidly expanding nuclear weapons production
IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi told reporters in Seoul on Wednesday that North Korea has made a “very serious increase” in its ability to produce nuclear weapons. Grossi confirmed a rapid rise in operations at Yongbyon’s five-megawatt reactor, its reprocessing unit, its light water reactor, and other facilities. The IAEA has also identified what appears to be a new uranium enrichment facility — a likely addition to the existing site at Yongbyon and the separate Kangson complex near Pyongyang. Satellite imagery from April, analysed by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, indicated completion of a suspected plant capable of producing weapons-grade material.
The day before Grossi’s statement, Kim Jong Un oversaw tests of strategic cruise missiles and anti-warship missiles launched from a naval destroyer, and was briefed on two more destroyers under construction. He reiterated that nuclear deterrence remained the “most important priority task.” North Korea’s ninth party congress is expected in the coming weeks, where Kim has said he will “clarify the next-stage plans for further bolstering up the country’s nuclear war deterrent.”
The IAEA announcement lands in a week when the Iran nuclear question has consumed global diplomatic bandwidth.
Israel’s ethnic cleansing of southern Lebanon shows no signs of ending
Israel’s campaign in southern Lebanon is not being characterised as ethnic cleansing despite that fact being stated in explicit terms by Israeli officials. Defence Minister Israel Katz declared that Shiite residents who have evacuated “will not return to their homes south of the Litani area.” Finance Minister Smotrich has threatened to apply the “Rafah and Khan Younis model” to Lebanon. Israeli military officials have privately pressed Christian and Druze communities in southern Lebanon to force out Shiite Muslim residents sheltering among them — a plan the New York Times reported and human rights groups immediately identified as ethnic cleansing.
Mass evacuation orders covering roughly one-fifth of Lebanese territory, systematic destruction of Shiite towns, and an explicit statement from the defence minister that displaced people will not be allowed to return. Under international humanitarian law, displacement is only lawful if temporary and imperative for military reasons, and people must be allowed to return when hostilities end. Israeli officials have stated publicly that return will not be permitted. HRW also documented that the same pattern was applied in Gaza, and in the West Bank, where Operation Iron Wall in early 2025 displaced 32,000 Palestinians from three refugee camps, the largest displacement since 1967, who remain barred from returning.
Israel’s finance and defence ministers have separately called for annexing southern Lebanon. Israel has cut all main roads into Bint Jbeil, struck the city with airstrikes, artillery, and white phosphorus, and maintains a ground invasion. Since March 2, over 2,055 people have been killed in Lebanon, including 252 women and 165 children. More than one million people have been displaced, roughly one in five of the population.
Democrats introduce 25th Amendment bill as Trump jokes about it himself
House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin introduced legislation Tuesday to establish a Commission on Presidential Capacity under Section 4 of the 25th Amendment, backed by 50 Democratic co-sponsors. The commission would consist of 17 members, including physicians, psychiatrists, and former statespersons, and would be authorised to determine whether the president is unable to discharge the duties of office. Congress has never actually established this body in the 59 years since the amendment was ratified.
Raskin cited a cascade of recent events: Trump’s “a whole civilization will die tonight” post, the AI Jesus image, the public attack on the Pope, the Iran blockade announcement without congressional authorisation, and the conduct of the war. “Public trust in Donald Trump’s ability to meet the duties of his office has dropped to unprecedented lows as he threatens to destroy entire civilizations,” he said. More than 85 House and Senate Democrats had already called for impeachment or the 25th Amendment in the days before the bill was filed.
The bill will not pass. Republicans control Congress, Trump could veto it, and removal under Section 4 would require Vance and a Cabinet majority to sign off — then two-thirds of both chambers to sustain it against a presidential challenge. The bar is higher than impeachment. What Democrats are doing is political: building a record, keeping the question of Trump’s fitness in circulation, and putting the onus on the Cabinet publicly. Trump himself made the joke at a March Cabinet meeting: “I can’t say what we’re going to do because if I did, I wouldn’t be sitting here for long. They’d probably institute the 25th Amendment.”
❤️