The Pope declared John Henry Newman a saint today, the first Briton to be canonised since 1976. An audience of tens of thousands, including the Prince of Wales, applauded as Newman’s name was read out and the choir sang “Alleluia.”
Newman, born in 1801, was a prominent Anglican at Oxford University, until 1845 when he converted to Catholicism. His conversion caused a sensation; one of his sisters never spoke to him again.
Monsignor Roderick Strange, a biographer of the saint told the Telegraph: “At that time Catholics were a despised minority. To go from a position of such distinction to become a catholic left many of his contemporaries asking ‘what could you be thinking?!’”
Newman became a priest and later Cardinal. As one of the great apologists for his faith, he helped found an oratory in England and what is today University College, Dublin. His writings are considered masterpieces of Victorian theology. He died in 1890 and is the first Englishman born since the 1600s to be canonised.
Pope Francis arrives to celebrate the Canonisation Mass for John Henry Newman
The Church has recognised two miracles performed, according to Catholic teaching, after prayer to Newman to intercede on the sufferer’s behalf. Jack Sullivan, a deacon, was cured of a spinal disease. Melissa Villalobos was cured of unstoppable bleeding. Both were present in the Square as pilgrims.
In his homily, delivered surrounded by Swiss guards, Anglican and Catholic clergy, Pope Francis quoted from a sermon by Newman describing the Christian character as “cheerful, easy, kind, courteous, candid, unassuming.”
Crowds gather in the St. Peter's Square for Newman's canonisationCredit:
Reuters
The Prince of Wales has also paid tribute to the saint’s celebrated ability to disagree without anger. His Royal Highness wrote: “Whatever our own beliefs or tradition, we can be thankful for the gifts, rooted in his Catholic faith, which Newman shared with wider society.”
Three British orphaned children of Islamic State fighters who went missing after their camp in Syria came under Turkish attack have been rescued by the UN.
The children were picked up by aid workers from the UN’s refugee agency as the women who had been detained in Ain Issa camp escaped, Save the Children told The Daily Telegraph.
According to local reports, Turkish warplanes struck villages near the detention camp, which is 20 miles south of the Turkish-Syrian border, and hundreds of women and children escaped as clashes broke out between Turkey-backed Syrian fighters and Kurdish forces.
The British identity of Amira, 10, her sister, Hiba, eight, and their brother Hamza, was discovered by the BBC earlier this week.
The children are believed to have travelled to Syria with their parents from London five years ago.
Orphans of foreign Isil fighters gather to eat at a camp in the northern Syrian village of Ain Issa before the women detained there escaped on SundayCredit:
BBC
Their mother and father, an older brother and two other sisters were killed in air strikes on the last of Isil’s territory, which finally fell to Kurdish led-forces in March.
The children, who now speak Arabic, remember little of their lives before they were taken to live in the caliphate and could not tell journalists their surname.
“They are young and traumatised,” said Sonia Kush, Syria Response Director at Save the Children. “There were 24 children in the camp that arrived without documentation: some know their nationalities, some, like these children, are not sure.”
She said they had been taken to a centre in the city of Raqqa and efforts were being made to try to establish their surname and if they had any extended family in the UK.
An internally displaced girl who fled Raqqa city sits inside a camp in Ain IssaCredit:
Reuters
“We have been warning about this scenario for some time,” she told The Telegraph. “And we say again: the foreign governments need to take responsibility for their citizens.”
The British government has so far refused the return of Isil fighters and their families, despite pressure from the US-led coalition and their Kurdish allies.
According to Frederica Mogherini, EU foreign affairs chief, the topic was not discussed at Monday’s EU summit despite protracted debate on the situation in Syria.
Among those who fled the camp on Sunday was notorious Isil recruiter from Walthamstow, Tooba Gondal, 25, who made contact with her family on Sunday to tell them she had run away and was now “walking the streets”.
Fellow Londoner Zara Iqbal, former Irish soldier Lisa Smith and “Beatle” Alexanda Kotey’s Syrian wife are also thought to have escaped and are now unaccounted for.
According to Ms Kush, the women overcame the camp’s guards in the chaos that ensued after the Turkish strikes and grabbed back their documentation and phones which were held in the office.
Isil "matchmaker" Tooba Gondal was among a number of British women to flee Ain Issa camp on SundayCredit:
ITV
She said some of the women escaped and then returned, making the calculation that they would better off under the Turkish-backed Syrian rebels – which briefly seized control of the camp – than Kurdish or regime forces.
The situation around Ain Issa is fluid. It is located south of Turkey’s proposed safe zone and is likely to now come under the control of the Syrian government after it struck a deal with the Kurds.
Isil supporters on the encrypted Telegram group were understood to be attempting to help them smuggle out to areas under the control of Turkish forces. Most do not want to risk being detained by the Syrian government, which has tortured and executed more than 11,000 people in its prisons.
Relatives mourn in front of the grave of Halil Yagmur who were killed in a mortar attack a day earlier in Suruc near northern Syria borderCredit:
AFP
According to sources close to the regime, talks are ongoing about the fate of thousands of foreign Isil prisoners detained in Isil-held prisons.
One who asked not to be named told The Telegraph he believed they too would eventually come under the regime’s control, who could use the prospect of their release as leverage against Western governments.
Emma Beals, an independent Syria analyst, said the scenario would be a "win" for the government: "(It) would then be in a position to attempt to extract concessions from the prisoner’s governments in return for their continued detention. The Assad regime have released jihadist prisoners to advance their perceived strategic aims in the past.
"Foreign governments may see a continuation of their ‘hands off’ policy regarding their ISIS affiliated citizens as a positive, or neutral development, that avoids their return home," she told the Telegraph.
"Instead it is a huge security risk, with dangerous individuals now at risk of release, or able to be used as bargaining chips against their governments. All actors know these individuals represent foreign government’s largest security, foreign policy, and domestic policy Achilles heel and will not be afraid to exploit this."
A British volunteer with Syria’s Kurds has described the "horrifying experience" of pulling the victims of Turkish air strikes out of the rubble, as fighting continued along the Turkish-Syrian border despite a declared ceasefire.
Danielle Ellis, a 32-year-old Oxford University graduate from London, had been part of a civilian convoy attempting to deliver aid to residents of a village in the border town of Ras al-Ayn when they came across corpses buried in the ruins.
The group stopped before reaching the town after they were warned they were in firing range of gunmen from the Syrian National Army (SNA), which is fighting in northern Syria alongside Turkish forces.
“We passed a pile of rubble in the last village before Seri Kaniyê (the Kurdish name for Ras al-Ayn), part of it was still smouldering,” the former engineering student told the Telegraph by phone. "A few people decided to have a look.
“There were a lot of bodies. I counted 10, but there were other sites being worked on so there may have been more,” she said.
Danielle Ellis spoke of the horror of pulling corpses from rubble
“It had been completely destroyed by airstrikes. They were all adults, I’m pretty sure men but it was impossible to say for sure because they were in a pretty bad way.”
She said she also could not be sure whether they had been fighters with the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) or civilians.
“One of the bodies I pulled out had a gun embedded in it – it could have been military but also many picked up arms to fight Turkey,” said Miss Ellis, who has been a civil defence volunteer with the Kurds for almost a year. “There were children’s things about, a family had been living in the house at some point.
“We got most of the bodies out but some of them we had to leave as they were under reinforced concrete,” she said, guessing from the smell that they had been there for several days.
“All my clothes smell of death. It’s under my fingernails,” she said. "It was horrifying."
Both sides accused the other of violating the five-day ceasefire, negotiated by Turkey and the US. Ras al-Ayn seemed the immediate test of the truce.
Turkey and Syria border
Before the deal’s announcement, Turkish-backed forces had encircled the town and were battling fierce resistance from Kurdish fighters inside.
After a brief lull, artillery fire and ground clashes were reported mid-morning. By the evening more than 14 Syrian civilians were reported to have been killed, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The Syrian Kurds raised further uncertainty over a ceasefire deal, which was announced after Mike Pence, the US Vice President, held meetings with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara, that already was vague on key points and left significant questions unanswered.
The Kurdish administration said some provisions of the deal, which was favourable to Turkey, "need further discussion with the United States."
Under the terms of the agreement, there will be a five-day pause in fighting while Kurdish forces withdraw from the border, an arrangement that hands Turkey most of what it was looking to achieve with its military offensive.
However, the two sides appeared to have different interpretations of which areas Kurdish forces would withdraw from. Turkey said the Kurds must withdraw from all parts of the Turkish border, while the Kurds said the deal applied to only a 100-mile strip between Ras al-Aiy and Tal Abyad.
Donald Trump likened Syria and the Kurds to "kids" Credit:
Tom Pennington/Getty Images
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump drew criticism for his crowing performance at a political rally in Texas, where he compared the Turks and Kurds to children fighting in a park and said “a little tough love” was needed to broker a deal.
"Sometimes you have to let them fight, like two kids in a lot. You have to let them fight, and then you pull them apart,” he said, calling the deal “an amazing outcome”.
Mr Trump referred to Mr Erdoğan as “a gentleman” and said the Turkish president’s visit to Washington next month would go ahead despite the bloodshed in northeast Syria.
Brett McGurk, who served under Mr Trump as coordinator of the coalition against the Islamic State (Isil), called the president’s comments “obscene and ignorant”.
Donald Tusk, EU Council President, said it was "not a ceasefire, it is a demand for the capitulation of the Kurds", while French President Emmanuel Macron called the Turkish operation "madness."
Thousands of people have been displaced by the violenceCredit:
HO/AFP via Getty Images
Mr Macron added that he expects to meet Mr Erdoğan alongside Boris Johnson, Prime Minister, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in London in the coming weeks.
More than a hundred civilians have been killed on both sides of the border since the fighting began and around 200,000 people have been displaced from their homes.
Amnesty International said Friday that Turkey and its Syrian rebel allies had “displayed a shameful disregard for civilian life” and committed “serious violations and war crimes” during the course of the offensive.
Ilnur Cevik, a Turkish presidential adviser, rejected the criticism as “black propaganda” and said Turkish forces had deliberately advanced slowly in urban areas to minimise civilian casualties.
Royalty and political leaders from around the world are arriving in Japan ahead of the enthronement ritual for Emperor Naruhito in Tokyo on Tuesday, a sumptuous and symbolism-rich ceremony expected to be watched by millions of Japanese.
Naruhito, 59, became emperor on May 1, the day after his father, Emperor Akihito, abdicated the Chrysanthemum Throne, with a series of ceremonies scheduled for the following months and culminating with the enthronement.
The ritual to crown the head of the world’s longest-lived royal dynasty dates back centuries and will see Emperor Naruhito entering the Hall of Pine at the Imperial Palace at 1pm (5am UK) on Tuesday.
Before hundreds members of foreign royal families – including the Prince of Wales – and national leaders, he will give a speech from the elaborate canopied throne, known as the Takamikura.
The emperor will wear a dark orange robe, the design of which dates back to the ninth ceremony, and will be accompanied on the throne by Empress Masako.
The emperor is expected to follow in the footsteps of his father at his enthronement ceremony in 1990, pledging to adhere to Japan’s pacifist constitution and to fulfill his duties as a symbol of the state.
Shinzo Abe, the Japanese prime minister, will then deliver a congratulatory speech on behalf of the nation and lead guests in three “banzai” cheers to express hopes for a long life for the emperor.
King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia of Spain were among those travelling to Japan for the enthronementCredit:
Fernando Alvarado/Rex
The original plan called for the emperor and empress to then take an open-top car on a 3-mile drive through Tokyo, with hundreds of thousands of well-wishers expected to line the streets. The Imperial Household Agency decided on Friday to cancel that part of the event out of respect for the victims of Super Typhoon Hagibis, which swept across eastern Japan on October 12.
The storm caused widespread flooding and landslides, with 79 people killed and a further 10 still missing.
A banquet will, however, go ahead at the Imperial Palace for members of other royal families, while Mr Abe will host a similar dinner at the Hotel New Otani.
Some £114 million is being spent on abdication and enthronement ceremonies and celebration. The use of public funds has drawn criticism from those – including from the emperor’s own brother – who say the events are essentially religious rites, and that the government is therefore violating the constitutionally mandated separation of church and state.
Some critics also claim that the emperor’s proclamation from a position physically higher than the prime minister breaches the constitutional principle that the sovereignty of the nation resides with the people.
Representatives of 194 countries are landing in Tokyo, stretching the capability of its two international airports, with domestic airlines forced to cancel dozens of flights to accommodate foreign leaders’ aircraft.
As well as Prince Charles, foreign royals will include King Felipe VI and Queen Letitia of Spain, King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands and his wife, Queen Maxima, as well as King Philippe of Belgium and his wife, Queen Mathilde.
Other guests will include Wang Qishan, the Chinese vice-president, Elaine Chao, the US transport secretary, and Aung San Suu Kyi, the state counsellor of Myanmar.
Australia’s Uluru closed to climbers on Friday after a decades-long battle by the Indigenous owners of the sacred site.
Thousands of people swarmed to Uluru this year before an official ban kicked in.
Anyone now caught climbing Uluru will be in breach of the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Act and could face heavy fines.
To commemorate the climbing ban, public celebrations will take place this weekend when the dismantling of the trail and its railing is also expected to begin.
Earlier in the day, hundreds of tourists clambered up the Unesco World Heritage-listed 348-metre (1,142-ft) monolith, formerly known as Ayers Rock.
Authorities opened the climb mid-morning amid clear skies, after blustery conditions delayed early trekkers.
Tourists have been flocking to Uluru ahead of the enforcement of a climbing banCredit:
REX
Uluru is a top tourist draw in Australia despite its remote desert location near Alice Springs in the Northern Territory.
While most visitors don’t climb its steep, red-ochre flanks, the impending ban triggered a surge in people taking a final opportunity to make the trek.
Nearly 400,000 visitors flocked to the Australian landmark in the year to end-June, government data shows.
The Anangu people, the traditional owners of Uluru, have called for the climb to be closed since 1985, when the park was returned to indigenous control.
A new permanent closure sign is installed at UluruCredit:
REUTERS
The Anangu say Uluru has deep spiritual significance as a route their ancestors took.
"This is our home," read a sign at the base of the rock. "Please don’t climb."
“People wanting to climb the rock before it closes shows how Uluru has been framed as some kind of fair-ground attraction rather than a cultural and spiritual treasure,” said Dr Phil Chilton of Curtin University. "When it comes to Aboriginal culture, it’s treated like an artefact, like a novelty on a postcard."
Dr Chilton added that hard-Right politician Pauline Hanson had contributed to a “frenzy” of people climbing Uluru by “setting it up as something that was somehow white Australia’s birthright being taken away”.
One of the last climbers, Jason Dudas from Las Vegas, said: "Well, I know there’s a big controversy on the hike, and I respect the First Nations here, but since it was an optional thing to do, I decided to do it and now that it’s officially closed, I won’t be hiking it anymore."
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge pose for media with Uluru in the backgroundCredit:
Anthony Devlin/PA
Elder Nelly Patterson said she was relieved at the ban coming into force. "Really good, I’m really happy," she said to cheers from the crowd.
The Oct. 26 closure marks 34 years since the land was given back to the Anangu people, an important moment in the struggle by indigenous groups to retrieve their homelands.
Local Anangu ranger Tjiangu Thomas told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation it had been an important day for the community and the region.
"It’s rather emotional, having Elders who picked up this long journey before I was born, to close the climb, and now they are no longer here but we are carrying on their legacy," he said.
Tens of thousands of Catalans rallied in support of Spanish unity in a Barcelona counter-demonstration on Sunday following another night of violence between police and separatist protesters.
Around 80,000 people flooded the city centre, according to police figures, many of them waving Spanish and Catalan flags, amid growing alarm over the crisis that has brought scenes of serious unrest to the northern autonomous community.
One poster read in English: "We are Catalonians too, stop this madness!!"
The counter-protest came after a larger pro-independence rally of some 350,000 in the Catalan capital on Saturday, which gave way to night-time clashes between hardline separatists and security forces.
The mainstream Saturday demonstration had passed off peacefully, a sea of marchers waving the Estelada flag of Catalan independence and calling for the release of the separatist leaders whose sedition convictions two weeks ago sparked the latest uprising.
Saturday's large pro-independence rally passed off peacefullyCredit:
Guy Smallman/Getty Images
But after the daytime rally dispersed, a thousands-strong crowd of more militant separatists gathered at the call of the CDR network – neighbourhood Committees for the Defence of the Republic – and parts of central Barcelona once again transformed into a battleground.
Projectiles were fired and barricades were set alight as officers charged ranks of demonstrators – many young and masking their faces – who had amassed outside the headquarters of the Spanish National Police force.
Six people were hospitalised with injuries, according to Catalan emergency services, including a Reuters photographer who was hit in the stomach with a rubber or foam bullet.
The confrontation began to unfold at around 7.30 pm (5.30 pm GMT), and as the ranks of the protesters swelled to around 10,000, according to police estimates, tensions spilled over.
TV footage showed demonstrators bombarding officers with projectiles such as glass bottles and plastic balls. Police carrying shields and weapons and backed by some 20 riot vans then charged the protesters in an attempt to disperse them.
The later protest was called by the Committees for the Defence of the Republic (CDR), a network of neighbourhood groups that advocate direct actionCredit:
Guy Smallman/Getty Images Europe
Officers armed with batons forced their way through the crowd while demonstrators threw stones and flares. News channel 24h showed police taking on protesters one-on-one. In the final street battles, officers chased down the remaining hardcore, who set fire to rubbish containers and barriers as they retreated.
While widespread anger remains over the sentences of up to 13 years handed to nine independence leaders, the events of the weekend have highlighted the political faultlines in Catalonia – including a growing divide between the mainstream separatist movement and the hardliners taking to the streets by night.
With the central government led by Pedro Sánchez refusing to talk, opinion polls showing Catalans almost evenly split on independence, and even the ruling separatist coalition in Barcelona at odds over strategy, the path out of the crisis remains unclear.
Barcelona and other cities have seen several nights of clashes in the two weeks since the sentencing of pro-independence leadersCredit:
Felipe Dana/AP
The Junts per Catalunya group of Catalan President Quim Torra has, while condemning violence, favoured "civil disobedience" and maintaining pressure on Madrid, while its leftist coalition partner Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya prefers dialogue.
One marcher at the daytime rally, 63-year-old Maria Llopart, criticised the political discord that was paralysing the so-called "process". "Everything looks very bad, we are not advancing," she said.
Though frustration at the lack of progress is likely to continue fuelling the rage of separatist radicals, numbers taking to the streets have begun to dwindle since the height of the latest unrest.
But much will also hinge on the national elections on November 10, which could lead to a minority government on Left or Right – and either forced to rely on allies with wildly differing views to the Catalonia question.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on Thursday said they were "horrified" by news of a train fire that killed 73 people in Pakistan.
The royal couple, who recently returned from a five-day tour of the country, were "deeply saddened to hear about the tragic fire on the Tezgam train", according to a statement released by the Kensington Palace.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with all the people and families affected by this heart-breaking disaster," it read.
The fire swept through the train on Thursday after a gas canister that passengers were using to cook breakfast exploded, Pakistan’s minister of railways said.
The blaze destroyed three of the train’s carriages near the town of Rahim Yar Khan in the south of Punjab province. It was on its way from the southern city of Karachi to Rawalpindi, near the capital, with many people going to a religious conference.
It was the worst disaster on Pakistan’s accident-plagued railway system in nearly 15 years.
"Two stoves blew up when people were cooking breakfast, the presence of kerosene with the passengers in the moving train further spread the fire," Minister for Railways Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told Geo television.
Many of the dead were killed when they leapt from the moving train to escape the flames, he said.
Fire burning in a train carriage after a gas canister passengers were using to cook breakfast exploded, near the town of Rahim Yar KhanCredit:
Asghar Bhawalpur/Reuters
People sneaking stoves onto trains to prepare meals on long journeys is a common problem, the minister said.
But several survivors questioned whether the fire was sparked by a cooking accident, telling media they believed the cause was a short-circuit in the train’s electrical system.
Television pictures showed fire and black smoke pouring from the train’s windows after it came to a stop on a stretch of line flanked by fields.
"People were jumping off, some of them were on fire," a witness told Geo.
The death toll had risen to 65, with some victims burned beyond recognition, said the deputy commissioner of the district, Jameel Ahmad.
"We’ll have to carry out DNA tests," Ahmad told Reuters.
Nearly 40 people were injured, many with serious burns, he said.
Many of the passengers were heading to a conference organised by the Tablighi Jamaat Sunni Muslim missionary movement, officials said.
Prime Minister Imran Khan said he was deeply saddened.
The Duchess of Cambridge in Lahore
"I have ordered an immediate inquiry to be completed on an urgent basis," Khan said in a post on Twitter.
Pakistan’s colonial-era railway network has fallen into disrepair in recent decades due to chronic under-investment and poor maintenance, and accidents are common.
About 130 people were killed in 2005 when a train rammed into another at a station in Sindh province, and a third train hit the wreckage.
The Duke and Duchess met Prime Minister Imran Khan on a tour from 14-18 October that saw them visit an orphanage, army dog training centre and the mountainous north.
More than 13,000 voters, the biggest gathering of Democrats all year, packed into the Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, to see a host of 2020 candidates set out, in 10 minutes each, their vision for America, and why they can beat Donald Trump.
It was at the same event in 2007 that Mr Obama achieved liftoff, his soaring rhetoric catapulting him to the presidential nomination, and eventually the Oval Office.
Twelve years later no-one has broken out from the crowded Democrat field. Polls show Iowa, the first state to vote on Feb 3, is a tight four-way battle between Elizabeth Warren, Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg….
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Donald Trump’s son has tweeted the name of the alleged whistleblower whose complaint about the US president’s behaviour towards Ukraine kick-started the impeachment inquiry.
For days now conservative websites have been publishing stories claiming to have discovered the identity of the CIA officer who filed a complaint about Mr Trump’s behaviour.
Amid a backdrop of growing partisan attacks on the whistleblower’s credibility, the president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, posted one such story that named the individual and questioned their motives.
After an immediate backlash, Donald Jr doubled down on his action, writing on Twitter: “I love the outrage about me tweeting an article about the ‘alleged’ whistleblower.”
The Telegraph has not independently verified the identity of the whistleblower, who has asked to remain anonymous, and is not publishing the name.
The move comes on the back of a chorus of vitriol from Mr Trump and his supporters directed at the whistleblower, including demands for the person to be named and allegations about their links to Democrats.
Many of the details in the complaint, which has since been made public, have been corroborated by other witnesses in the impeachment inquiry that followed, including that Mr Trump requested a Biden investigation while on the phone to the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
Whistleblowers are granted protections in America through a number of overlapping laws, some of which attempt to protect the individual from retribution for coming forward with information.
The Inspector General Act of 1978, for example, bars a government watchdog who receives a complaint from disclosing the identity of that person without consent, unless it is deemed "unavoidable".
The law appears not to bind others, such as the US president or his allies, from outing the whistleblower if the identity is discovered. In a statement issued after Mr Trump Jr’s tweet, the whistleblower’s attorneys warned that "identifying any suspected name for the whistleblower will place that individual and their family at risk of serious harm".
The statement by Andrew Bakaj and Mark Zaid said that "publication or promotion of a name shows the desperation to deflect from the substance of the whistleblower complaint. It will not relieve the President of the need to address the substantive allegations, all of which have been substantially proven to be true."
Profile | Donald Trump Jr
The article that Donald Jr tweeted was published by Breitbart, the Right-wing news website. Donald Jr tweeted the headline, which included the name of the alleged whistleblower, as well as a link.
Attacks on the whistleblower have been led by the President himself, who has demanded the right to know who his accuser is and repeatedly questioned the individual’s motives.
Mr Trump tweeted on Monday: "There is no whistleblower. There is someone with an agenda against Donald Trump.”
Rand Paul, the Republican senator from Kentucky, went a step further on Monday as he stood alongside Mr Trump on stage at a rally and threatened to expose the individual.
"We also now know the name of the whistleblower… I say tonight to the media, do your job and print his name,” Mr Paul said to cheering Trump supporters.
Side by side: Donald Trump and Rand PaulCredit:
Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg
Numerous Republican senators distanced themselves from Mr Paul’s call, arguing that the whistleblower’s request to remain anonymous should be respected.
It came as the impeachment inquiry – only the fourth to ever be launched against a US president – approached a new phase as public hearings were announced.
Next Wednesday testimony will be given by William Taylor, the chargé d’affaires at America’s Ukraine embassy who said that US aid was held back to secure a Biden investigation, and George Kent, a senior State Department official.
The following Friday Marie Yovanovitch, the former US ambassador to Ukraine who was ousted after a push to get rid of her from Trump allies, will give her account of what happened.
About | Impeachment
All three figures have given evidence behind closed doors that is unhelpful to Mr Trump’s attempt to wave away the scandal by insisting nothing untoward took place.
The inquiry, which was launched in September, entering into a public phase provides a political challenge for Mr Trump’s Republican defenders.
Thus far they have largely rallied around criticising the process which the Democrats have followed in pushing their inquiry rather than defending the president’s behaviour.
With the facts laid out on live television before an audience of US voters it will be harder for Republican congressmen not to address what they think about how Mr Trump acted.
Mr Trump has admitting that he pushed for an investigation into Mr Biden, but argued that it was important to have alleged corruption looked into. Mr Biden has always denied any wrongdoing.
DECATUR, GA — The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in 1963 garnered national attention. Nearly 60 years later, the Birmingham, Alabama, attack that killed four girls has not been forgotten. In fact, it was a moment in history that gave the civil rights movement even more momentum.
On Wednesday, the Greater Atlanta Black Prosecutors Association hosted “An Evening with Sarah Collins Rudolph,” a special Q&A with the survivor who was then 12 years old when her church was bombed. The event was moderated by Ebony Phillips, vice president of programs. More than 700 people registered to attend the free event that was held at Peace Baptist Church, 4000 Covington Highway, Decatur.
Sarah Collins Rudolph poses with attendees after the event. (Andrea V. Watson/Patch)
The 16th Street Baptist Church was once a meetup hub for civil rights activists such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who held several meetings within its four walls during that era. That well-known fact made the black church a target for local white supremacists, who would routinely call the church with bomb threats.
On Sept. 15, 1963, parishioners attended church like any other Sunday. Tragedy hit when a bomb detonated at 10:22 a.m. It took the lives of four girls who were getting ready in the church’s basement bathroom before the 11 a.m. service. Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley and Carole Robertson, all age 14, and 11-year-old Denise McNair died that day. There was a fifth girl — a survivor. Sarah is one who often is forgotten.
On Wednesday, Rudolph described to the audience what it was like attending a segregated school and not being allowed to play with white children. She talked about growing up with five sisters and two brothers and how 5-cent movies after church were a favorite pastime.
Rudolph grew up in a time when activists were advocating for integrated schools, along with other civil rights for African Americans. Birmingham was a city full of racial tensions. She opened up about the day of the church bombing, reflecting momentarily on why she thinks she’s here today.
“I survived because God wanted someone to tell the story,” she said. “God spared me to tell it.”
The bomb’s explosion caused the front of the building’s walls to cave in.
Moments before, Cynthia, Denise and Carole had walked into the bathroom joining Sarah and her sister, Addie.
“Denise walked over to Addie and asked her to tie the sash on her dress; when she reached out to tie the sash, ‘boom’ — that’s when the bomb went off. All I could say was, ‘Jesus, Addie, Addie,’ but she didn’t answer. I didn’t know what happened.”
A deacon of the church jumped down to her from the first floor because the steps had been blown away, she said.
“The bomb blew a big hole in the church. I was still standing. He saw me standing, just bleeding.”
King would later give the eulogy.
Although Sarah’s life was spared, there were still injuries. Glass was in her face, eyes and chest. Doctors operated but were only able to save the left eye, which still has a piece of glass in it.
Always an “A” student, Sarah said that the traumatic event affected her life. Grades suffered, and the dream of becoming a nurse faded. The family silently grieved the loss of a daughter, a sister. The impact reached beyond her childhood years. Back then, victim resources weren’t available, and no one talked about it at school, she said.
“I was treated as though nothing had happened,” she said. “I didn’t get any counseling — I just went back. The kids acted as if they didn’t know.”
Sarah developed a nervous condition and was always afraid, she said. As a young adult, she said she developed a drinking and smoking habit to cope with the stress. It didn’t help, and one day she visited a church. “The apostle was talking about getting saved, and so I got my life right with God.”
Most of her life, Rudolph said, she lived with fear, suppressing her feelings from that incident. It wasn’t until her late 40s that she said she released it and put her trust in God.
Twenty-year career victim advocate Rita Davis-Cannon, who’s also the state’s Prosecuting Attorney Council’s Director of Victim Services, says everyone deals with trauma differently. The impact on children is often greater than on adults, she said. In Sarah’s situation, the lack of resources after the incident delayed her willingness to share openly.
“I attribute that to her not having the counseling, guidance and support to help her maneuver through that process,” Davis-Cannon said. “A very important part of the healing process is being able to properly talk about it with professionals who are trained to teach you how to cope with these kinds of dramatic events.”
The event inspired her, and she said she hopes it did the same for many of the advocates in the room, which included judges and prosecutors.
“We can’t have another victim saying they didn’t have that guidance and support,” Davis-Cannon said. “The significance for me is to see how we’re progressing and what we can do in the victim service field to be [that] and help victims throughout the criminal justice process.”
The Rev. Darron Randolph, executive pastor, said the Q&A was both heartfelt and overwhelming. He said he has respect for Rudolph, who persevered.
Originally from Alabama himself, he said he wasn’t aware of her story. Now that he knows it, he said it’s a story that needs to be told. On Wednesday, the audience consisted of all ages, including children who even directed questions to the survivor. Randolph said it’s important for the young African American generation to know their history.
“We have to do a better job as family and as a community in telling our kids our history,” he said. “They really don’t know it these days. They see bits of it, but February is not enough time to tell black history — it’s way past Dr. King.”
He said the bar has been set with this year’s event, and they are already thinking of 2021.
The Civil Rights Act was signed into law in 1964. Bobby Frank Cherry, Thomas Blanton, Robert Chambliss and Herman Frank Cash were named as the suspects after the law was signed, according to Time.