A Catholic charity is accepting donations of financial support for community members following a mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis.
The Catholic Community Foundation of Minnesota, a public charity that helps support “Catholic individuals, families, parishes, and institutions,” created the Annunciation Hope and Healing Fund to support the grieving community after a shooter fired through windows during Mass on Wednesday morning, killing two children and injuring 17 others.
The fund is aimed at providing financial support to the church “for the needs of the church and school, as well as to support those affected by the tragedy,” according to a press release.
“We know there will be an outpouring of support for the Annunciation community,” foundation president Anne Cullen Miller said in the release. “And that comes with a heavy administrative burden. By creating the Annunciation Hope and Healing Fund, CCF takes on the work of processing and acknowledging gifts, freeing parish staff to focus on what matters most right now: its mission and ministries.”
All donations will be received without an administration fee, according to the foundation. Large grants received will be disbursed to help support the Church of the Annunciation community. The foundation’s board of directors, along with Annunciation Church and School leaders, may also use grants received to “support broader needs in the Catholic community that arise in connection with or as a result of the tragedy,” according to the release.
“Principal Matt DeBoer urged us to act,” Miller said in the release. “He asked us to pray — and to keep moving into action to support the Annunciation community. The Annunciation Hope and Healing Fund offers us one way to act and support the children, families, teachers, staff and worshipers affected by senseless violence.”
Those interested in donating to support the community of Annunciation can visit ccf-mn.org/annunciation.
Related Articles
The other victims in school shootings: The children who survive
Investigators look for a motive in a deadly mass shooting at Minneapolis church
Minneapolis Catholic schoolchildren listened to a prayer, then ducked for cover from gunfire
What we know about the Minneapolis school shooting suspect
‘Heroic action’: Teachers and older students protected children in Minneapolis school shooting
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia launched a major air attack early Thursday on Kyiv that included a rare strike on the city center, killing at least 21 people, wounding 48 and damaging European Union diplomatic offices, authorities said.
Related Articles
European nations start process to impose a ‘snapback’ of Iran nuclear sanctions at UN
Japan’s chief trade envoy postpones US trip as Tokyo calls for faster action on its tariffs deal
North Korea’s Kim will meet with Xi and Putin at Chinese military parade
Today in History: August 28, Emmett Till’s brutalized body found
Postal services that suspended US shipments need time to prepare for new tariffs, UN agency says
The bombardment of drones and missiles was the first major Russian attack on Kyiv in weeks as U.S.-led peace efforts to end the three-year war struggled to gain traction. Britain said the attack sabotaged peace efforts, while top EU diplomat Kaja Kallas summoned Russia’s EU envoy to Brussels over the strikes that damaged EU offices.
Ukraine on Thursday requested an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council to discuss the overnight bombardment, while two of Ukraine’s top envoys were set to meet Friday with the Trump administration regarding mediation.
The Kremlin said Russia remained interested in continuing peace talks despite Thursday’s air attack, which was one of the war’s biggest since it began in 2022.
Among the dead were four children between 2 and 17, said Tymur Tkachenko, the head of Kyiv’s city administration. He said more people could still be under the rubble, and search and rescue efforts continued on Thursday evening.
Rare attack on center of Kyiv
The attack was one of the few times Russian drones and missiles have penetrated the heart of Kyiv since the start of the full-scale invasion.
Ukraine’s Air Force said Russia launched 598 strike drones and decoys and 31 missiles of different types across the country early Thursday, most of them striking targets in Kyiv.
At least 33 locations across all 10 of the city’s districts were directly hit or damaged by debris, Tkachenko said. Thousands of windows shattered as nearly 100 buildings were damaged, including a shopping mall in the city center.
Oleksandr Khilko arrived at the scene after a missile hit the residential building where his sister lives in the capital’s Darnytsia district. He heard screams from people who were trapped under the rubble and pulled out three survivors, including a boy.
“It’s inhuman, striking civilians,” Khilko said, his clothes covered in dust and the tips of his fingers black with soot. “With every cell of my body I want this war to end as soon as possible. I wait, but every time the air raid alarm sounds, I am afraid.”
Sophia Akylina said her home in Kyiv’s Holosiivskyi district was damaged.
“It’s never happened before that they attacked so close,” the 21-year old said. “Negotiations haven’t yielded anything yet, unfortunately people are suffering.”
EU and UK summon Russian envoys after strikes hit their buildings
European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen said two strikes landed 20 seconds apart about 50 meters (165 feet) from the EU Mission to Ukraine building in Kyiv. She said no staff were injured in the strike.
Rescue workers carry an injured woman after a Russian strike on residential neighbourhood in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Thursday, Aug. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Firefighters work on the site of a burning building after a Russian attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, early Thursday, Aug. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
A man carries a sofa at his apartment damaged by a Russian strike in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Thursday, Aug. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
A residential building is seen damaged by a Russian strike on residential neighbourhood in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Thursday, Aug. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
A pile of shattered glass from a storefront window sits outside a salon as a hairdresser shampoos a client’s hair, after Russia’s drone and missile attack that damaged residential buildings in central Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Aug. 28, 2025 (AP Photo/Danylo Antoniuk)
1 of 5
Rescue workers carry an injured woman after a Russian strike on residential neighbourhood in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Thursday, Aug. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
“No diplomatic mission should ever be a target. In response, we are summoning the Russian envoy in Brussels,” Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s top diplomat, said Thursday in a post on X.
The British Council, which promotes cultural relations and educational opportunities, also said its Kyiv office had been “severely damaged” in the attack and was closed to visitors until further notice.
The organization posted a photo showing the building with its windows and entrance smashed open and surrounded by glass and debris. A guard was injured and is “shaken but stable,” council chief executive Scott McDonald posted on X.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Russian President Vladimir Putin was “sabotaging” hopes of peace following the “senseless” strikes. The Russian ambassador to London was summoned to the foreign office.
Diplomatic efforts to reach peace have stalled
Thursday’s attack is the first major combined Russian mass drone and missile attack to strike Kyiv since U.S. President Donald Trump met with Putin in Alaska earlier this month to discuss ending the war in Ukraine.
“Russia chooses ballistics instead of the negotiating table,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a post on X following the attack. “We expect a response from everyone in the world who has called for peace but now more often stays silent rather than taking principled positions.”
While a diplomatic push to end the war appeared to gain momentum shortly after that meeting, few details have emerged about the next steps.
Western leaders have accused Putin of dragging his feet in peace efforts and avoiding serious negotiations while Russian troops move deeper into Ukraine. This week, Ukrainian military leaders conceded Russian forces have broken into an eighth region of Ukraine seeking to capture more ground.
Zelenskyy hopes for harsher U.S. sanctions to cripple the Russian economy if Putin does not demonstrate seriousness about ending the war. He reiterated those demands following Thursday’s attack.
Trump bristled this week at Putin’s stalling on an American proposal for direct peace talks with Zelenskyy. Trump said Friday he expects to decide on next steps in two weeks if direct talks aren’t scheduled.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Thursday said that it was “clear that a meeting between President Zelenskyy and President Putin will not take place.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt criticized both Putin and Zelenskyy after the Thursday attack on Kyiv.
She said that Trump “was not happy about this news, but he was also not surprised” by Russia’s Thursday air assault on Ukrainian capital.
Leavitt noted that Ukraine has also launched effective assaults on Russia’s oil industry in recent weeks.
“Perhaps both sides of this war are not ready to end it themselves,” Leavitt said. “The president wants it to end, but the leaders of these two countries … must want it to end as well.”
Russia says it targeted ‘military-industrial complex’
Russia’s Defense Ministry said it carried out a strike against military air bases and companies “within Ukraine’s military-industrial complex” using long-range weapons, including Kinzhal missiles.
“All designated objects were hit,” the ministry said in a statement.
Ukraine has ramped up domestic arms production to fight Russia’s invasion. Many weapons factories operate covertly, with some embedded in civilian areas with superior air defenses. Indiscriminate Russian attacks claiming to target Ukraine’s defense industry have killed many civilians.
The Russian Defense Ministry also said it shot down 102 Ukrainian drones overnight, mostly in the country’s southwest. A drone attack sparked a blaze at the Afipsky oil refinery in the Krasnodar region, local officials said, while a second fire was reported at the Novokuibyshevsk refinery in the Samara region.
Ukrainian drones have repeatedly struck refineries and other oil infrastructure in recent weeks in an attempt to weaken Russia’s war economy, causing gas stations in some Russian regions to run dry and prices to spike.
Ukraine’s national railway operator, Ukrzaliznytsia, reported damage to its infrastructure in the Vinnytsia and Kyiv regions, causing delays and requiring trains to use alternative routes.
Associated Press journalists Yehor Konovalov, Vasilisa Stepanenko, Illia Novikov in Kyiv, Ukraine, Sam McNeil in Brussels, Katie Marie Davies in Manchester, England, Daniel Niemann in Cologne, Germany and Aamer Madhani in Washington contributed to this report.
Former Major League Baseball star Mark Teixeira announced Thursday that he’s running for the Republican nomination for a House seat in Texas.
The former slugger for the Texas Rangers and New York Yankees said he’s running for the 21st District seat currently held by Republican Rep. Chip Roy. Roy has said he’s not seeking reelection and is running for Texas attorney general.
Related Articles
Departing CDC officials say Monarez’s firing was the final straw and political meddling is a problem
Mystery surrounds $1.2 billion Army contract to build huge detention tent camp in Texas desert
What to know after the US deports more migrants to Africa
Fed official sues Trump over attempt to fire her, challenging his power over the independent agency
Japan’s chief trade envoy postpones US trip as Tokyo calls for faster action on its tariffs deal
“As a proud Texan and lifelong conservative who loves our country, I’m ready to fight for the principles that make Texas strong and America exceptional,” Teixeira said in a statement posted on X. “It takes teamwork to win, and I’m ready to help defend President Trump’s America First agenda, Texas families and individual liberty.”
Teixeira began his career with the Rangers, and was the 5th overall pick in the 2001 MLB draft. His 14-season career included three All-Star Game appearances, five Gold Gloves, three Silver Sluggers and a World Series title with the Yankees in 2009. Teixeira and his family moved back to Texas in 2021 after he retired from baseball.
In his announcement, Teixeira pledged to work with Trump to secure the border and end “radical woke indoctrination.”
The district’s GOP primary already has another contender — Daniel Betts, who ran unsuccessfully for Travis County district attorney last year, has filed paperwork to run.
The 21st Congressional District covers a deeply conservative area west of both Austin and San Antonio. Teixeira announced his bid days after Republicans in the state Legislature approved a redistricting map meant to favor the GOP in the 2026 election.
NEW YORK (AP) — When the White House fired Susan Monarez as director of the premier U.S. public health agency, it was clear to two of the scientific leaders at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that the political meddling would not end and it was time to quit.
Related Articles
Former MLB star Mark Teixeira announces bid for US House seat in Texas
Mystery surrounds $1.2 billion Army contract to build huge detention tent camp in Texas desert
What to know after the US deports more migrants to Africa
Fed official sues Trump over attempt to fire her, challenging his power over the independent agency
Japan’s chief trade envoy postpones US trip as Tokyo calls for faster action on its tariffs deal
“We knew … if she leaves, we don’t have scientific leadership anymore, ” one of the officials, Dr. Debra Houry, told The Associated Press on Thursday.
“We were going to see if she was able to weather the storm. And when she was not, we were done,” said Houry, one of at least four CDC leaders who resigned this week. She was the agency’s deputy director and chief medical officer.
The White House confirmed late Wednesday that Monarez was fired because she was not “aligned with” President Donald Trump’s agenda and had refused to resign. She had been sworn in less than a month ago.
Trump’s health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., declined during an appearance on “Fox & Friends” to directly comment on the CDC shake-up. But he said he continues to have concerns about CDC officials hewing to the administration’s health policies.
“So we need to look at the priorities of the agency, if there’s really a deeply, deeply embedded, I would say, malaise at the agency,” Kennedy said. “And we need strong leadership that will go in there and that will be able to execute on President Trump’s broad ambitions.”
A lawyer for Monarez said the termination was not legal — and that she would not step down — because she was informed of her dismissal by staff in the presidential personnel office and that only Trump himself could fire her. Monarez has not commented.
Dr. Richard Besser, a former CDC acting director, said that when he spoke with Monarez on Wednesday, she vowed not to do anything that was illegal or that flew in the face of science. She had refused directives from the Department of Health and Human Services to fire her management team.
She also would not automatically sign off on any recommendations from a vaccines advisory committee handpicked by Kennedy, according to Besser, now president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which helps support The Associated Press Health and Science Department.
Houry and Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, who resigned as head of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said Monarez had tried to make sure scientific safeguards were in place.
Some concerned the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, a group of outside experts who make recommendations to the CDC director on how to use vaccines. The recommendations are then adopted by doctors, school systems, health insurers and others.
Kennedy is a longtime leader in the anti-vaccine movement, and in June, he abruptly dismissed the entire panel, accusing members of being too closely aligned with manufacturers. He replaced them with a group that included several vaccine skeptics and then he shut the door to several doctors organizations that had long helped form vaccine recommendations.
Recently, Monarez tried to replace the official who coordinated the panel’s meetings with someone who had more policy experience. Monarez also pushed to have slides and evidence reviews posted weeks before the committee’s meetings and have the sessions open to public comment, Houry said.
HHS officials nixed that and called her to a meeting in Washington on Monday, Houry said.
When it became clear that Monarez was out, other top CDC officials decided they had to leave, too, Houry and Daskalakis said.
“I came to the point personally where I think our science will be compromised, and that’s my line in the sand,” Daskalakis said.
Monarez’s lawyers, Mark Zaid and Abbe David Lowell, said in a statement that when she refused “to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts, she chose protecting the public over serving a political agenda. For that, she has been targeted.”
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
