In the news
Pope Francis became the first Catholic pontiff to visit an Anglican parish in Rome, using his homily at the service to press for closer ties after centuries of mistrust and hostility between the two churches.
Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey urged GOP lawmakers not to shy away from holding town hall-style events even if they might be confronted by protesters, saying, “You asked for the job.”
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey is the subject of a new biopic called Reis — Turkish for “the chief” — that producers screened at a gala celebrating his 63rd birthday.
Eric Ferguson, city attorney in Benton City, Wash., said Tim Fulton’s service animal, a Shetland pony named Fred, can’t be kept in a residential zone, after U.S. officials began investigating whether the city committed a fair-housing violation by fining the man $100 and banning the pony, which Fulton says he needs to lean on while out walking.
Nils Bildt, identified as a “Swedish defense and national security adviser” in a Fox News interview, was the subject of some confusion after the Swedish Defense Ministry and Foreign Office said they knew nothing of him, prompting Bildt to later explain that he is a U.S.based independent analyst and that Fox had chosen its description of him.
John Yost, a tow truck driver, described as miraculous that a woman, 67, was rescued after she drove her vehicle into a swollen Northern California creek, where she spent the night in the backseat with her dog awaiting help, and that the vehicle landed upright and was lodged against a rock so it wasn’t swept downstream.
Emmanuel Nahshon, Israel’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, called vandalism at a Jewish cemetery in Philadelphia, in which more than 100 grave sites were damaged, “shocking and a source of worry.”
Yacoub Shaheen, a 22-year-old Palestinian, won this year’s Arab Idol, a television song competition, sparking dancing in the streets in front of a large screen erected outside the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, where hundreds of Palestinians had gathered to watch.
Lt. John Grimpel, a New York police spokesman, said that while the agency “is highly trained in the use of tranquilizer guns,” that does not include specific protocol for firing tranquilizer darts to immobilize large animals, as officers were forced to do after they chased an escaped bull through Queens.