Monday morning news: April 29, 2019

Suspect in synagogue shooting may face hate crime charge » AUDIO: [Sound of mourners singing]

Mourners singing at a vigil at a Presbyterian church in San Diego in honor of a woman killed in Saturday’s shooting at a California synagogue.

San Diego Police Chief David Nisleit said officers arrested a 19-year-old suspect.

NISLEIT: As our officer was exiting the freeway, he clearly saw the suspect in his vehicle. The suspect pulled over and jumped out of his car with his hands up and was immediately taken into custody by the San Diego Police Department. 

Police say the gunman used an assault style weapon, opening fire on those inside the Chabad of Poway. Sixty-year-old Lori Kaye died in the attack. Three others were injured, including an 8-year-old girl.

A person identifying as the alleged gunman posted an anti-Jewish manifesto online about an hour before the attack.

San Diego County Sheriff Bill Gore told reporters…

GORE: We are collecting digital evidence, and we’re aware of his manifesto, which we are in the process of reviewing to determine its validity and authenticity. 

The online poster described himself as a nursing school student and praised deadly attacks on mosques in New Zealand last month and a Pittsburgh synagogue last year.

USA Today reported alleged shooter is a member of Escondido Orthodox Presbyterian Church. The church’s pastor condemned the attack.

Sri Lanka’s churches close amid fears of more attacks » Meantime, in Sri Lanka, many worshiped from home on Sunday, fearing more church attacks one week after last week’s deadly bombings.

Sri Lanka’s archbishop led a televised service as all of the nation’s Catholic churches were closed. That came after local officials and the U.S. Embassy in Colombo warned that more militants remained on the loose with explosives.

Authorities raided a suspected terrorist safehouse on Saturday, trading gunfire with suspects. Three cornered suicide bombers then blew themselves up. The massive explosion killed 15 people, including six children.

Investigators sifting through that site and others uncovered a bomb-making operation capable of spreading far more destruction.

Mozambique facing new humanitarian crisis » The people  of Mozambique are enduring the ongoing effects of another natural disaster. UN spokesman Jens Laerke called the situation desperate.

LAERKE: Cyclone Kenneth may require a major new humanitarian operation at the same time that the ongoing Cyclone Idai response targeting 3 million people in three countries remain critically underfunded. 

The cyclone made landfall late last week in Cabo Delgado with winds up to 124 miles per hour. That’s the equivalent of a Category 4 hurricane. Officials described “total devastation” along a 40-mile stretch of coastline and nearby islands.

This was the first time in recorded history that the southern African nation has been hit by two cyclones in one season.

Many have lost their homes, and some 160,000 people are at flooding risk, with more torrential rain in the forecast.

DOJ: Barr may not testify in Thursday House hearing » The Justice Department has informed the House Judiciary Committee that Attorney General William Barr may not show for a Thursday hearing. That hearing is scheduled to review the Mueller report, but the Justice Department cited objections over the panel’s format.

Democrats want to allow the committee’s counsels from both sides to question Barr after the traditional round of questioning by members. And members can take the discussion into a closed session if they want to discuss redacted portions of the report.

Barr is scheduled to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday and the House panel on Thursday. House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler has threatened to subpoena the attorney general to testify if he backs out of Thursday’s hearing.

Avengers: Endgame shatters box office records » At the weekend box office, a record-shattering open for Avengers: Endgame.

TRAILER:  We’re the Avengers. We’ve got to finish this. 

“Endgame” broke the record the last Avengers movie set for an opening weekend. It delivered what some industry experts called an almost inconceivable weekend haul—$350 million dollars domestically—and $1.2 billion worldwide in just a few days.

Marvel also took second place at the box office—Capital Marvel still hanging in with another $8 million in ticket sales.

You can find WORLD’s reviews of current films, along with ratings and content information, at WNG.org/movies.

(Hayne Palmour IV/The San Diego Union-Tribune via AP) People from the community join members of the Rancho Bernardo Community Presbyterian Church in a candlelight vigil for the Chabad of Poway synagogue shooting victims at the Rancho Bernardo Community Presbyterian Church in the Rancho Bernardo neighborhood of San Diego, Calif., Saturday, April 27, 2019. 

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