World
Photos: Armenian Christians in Jerusalem’s Old City feel walls closing in
As Israel’s war on Gaza rages and Israeli attacks on people in the occupied West Bank continue, Armenian residents of the Old City of Jerusalem are fighting a different battle – quieter, they say, but no less existential.
One of the oldest communities in Jerusalem, the Armenians have lived in the Old City for more than 1,500 years, centred around the Armenian convent.
Now, the small Christian community has begun to fracture under pressure from forces they say threaten them and the multifaith character of the Old City – from Jewish settlers who jeer at clergymen on their way to prayer to a land deal threatening to turn a quarter of their land into a luxury hotel.
Chasms have emerged between the Armenian Patriarchate and the mainly secular community, whose members worry the church is not equipped to protect their dwindling population and embattled convent.
In the Armenian Quarter is Save the Arq’s headquarters, a structure with reinforced plywood walls hung with ancient maps inhabited by Armenians who are there to protest what they see as an illegal land grab by a real estate developer.
The land under threat is where the community holds events and also includes parts of the patriarchate itself.
After years of the patriarchate refusing to sell any of its land, Armenian priest Baret Yeretsian secretly “leased” the lot in 2021 for up to 98 years to Xana Capital, a company registered just before the agreement was signed.
Xana turned more than half the shares to a local businessman, George Warwar, who has been involved in various criminal offences.
Community members were outraged.
The priest fled the country and the patriarchate cancelled the deal in October, but Xana objected and the contract is now in mediation.
Xana has sent armed men to the lot, the activists say, attacking people, including clergy, with pepper spray and batons.
The activists say Warwar has the backing of a prominent settler organisation seeking to expand the Jewish presence in Jerusalem’s Old City.
The organisation, Ateret Cohanim, is behind several controversial land acquisitions in the Old City, and its leaders were photographed with Warwar and Xana Capital owner Danny Rothman, also known as Danny Rubinstein, in December 2023. Ateret Cohanim denied any connection to the land deal.
Activists filed suit against the patriarchate in February, seeking to have the deal declared void and the land to belong to the community in perpetuity.
The patriarchate refused, saying it owns the land.
Armenians began arriving in the Old City as early as the fourth century with a large wave arriving in the early 20th century, fleeing the Ottoman Empire. They have the same status as Palestinians in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem – residents but not citizens, effectively stateless.
Today, the newcomers are mainly boys who arrive from Armenia to live and study in the convent although many drop out. Clergy say that’s partially because attacks against Christians have increased, leaving the Armenians – whose convent is closest to the Jewish Quarter and is along a popular route to the Western Wall – vulnerable.
Father Aghan Gogchyan, the patriarchate’s chancellor, said he’s regularly attacked by groups of Jewish nationalists.
The Rossing Center, which tracks anti-Christian attacks in the Holy Land, documented about 20 attacks on Armenian people and property and church properties in 2023, many involving ultranationalist Jewish settlers spitting at Armenian clergy or graffiti reading “Death to Christians” scrawled on the quarter’s walls.
TENERIFE, Spain (AP) — A hantavirus-stricken cruise ship with more than 140 people on board has arrived at Tenerife, the largest of Spain’s Canary Islands, off the coast of West Africa, where the passengers and some of the crew are to disembark.
The World Health Organization, Spanish authorities and cruise company Oceanwide Expeditions have said that nobody on board the MV Hondius is currently showing symptoms of the virus. Three people have died since the outbreak, and five passengers who left the ship are infected with hantavirus, which can cause life-threatening illness.
As a hantavirus-stricken cruise ship is set to arrive at Granadilla port in Tenerife, Spain on Sunday morning, the WHO, Spanish authorities and cruise company Oceanwide Expedition are coordinating the disembarkation of passengers and some crew on ground.
The ship will not dock but will remain at anchor, with people ferried off in small boats. Everyone disembarking will be checked for symptoms, and will only be taken off the ship once evacuation flights are ready to fly them to their destinations.
There are currently people of more than 20 different nationalities on board.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, along with Spain’s health and interior ministers, were to be supervising the evacuation of the ship. Authorities have said the passengers and crew members who will disembark will have no contact with the local population.
Hantavirus usually spreads when people inhale contaminated residue of rodent droppings and isn’t easily transmitted between people. But the Andes virus detected in the cruise ship outbreak may be able to spread between people in rare cases. Symptoms usually show between one and eight weeks after exposure.
World
North Korea updates constitution to require automatic nuclear strike if Kim Jong Un is assassinated: report
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North Korea has updated its constitution to require a retaliatory nuclear strike if leader Kim Jong Un is assassinated, according to a report.
The Telegraph reported the change comes amid heightened global tensions following the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and other officials during a recent conflict.
Khamenei was killed in an Israeli strike in Tehran as part of a coordinated U.S.-Israeli military operation earlier this year, Fox News Digital previously reported.
The constitutional revision was approved during a session of North Korea’s Supreme People’s Assembly, which opened March 22 in Pyongyang, the outlet said.
ISRAEL TARGETS IRAN’S SUPREME LEADER IN SWEEPING STRIKES AS US JOINS ‘OPERATION EPIC FURY’
North Korea launched two cruise missiles and three anti-ship missiles from the destroyer Choe Hyon on Sunday, April 12, 2026, according to North Korean state media. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service/AP)
South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) briefed senior government officials this week on the update, according to the report.
The revised policy outlines procedures for retaliatory action if North Korea’s leadership is incapacitated or killed.
“If the command-and-control system over the state’s nuclear forces is placed in danger by hostile forces’ attacks … a nuclear strike shall be launched automatically and immediately,” the updated provision states.
KIM JONG UN CALLS SOUTH KOREA ‘MOST HOSTILE ENEMY,’ SAYS NORTH COULD ‘COMPLETELY DESTROY’ IT
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un delivers a speech at the inauguration ceremony of Saeppyol Street in Pyongyang on Feb. 15, 2026. (KCNA via KNS/AFP)
Reuters previously reported that North Korea revised its constitution to define its territory as bordering South Korea and remove references to reunification, reflecting Kim’s push to formally treat the two Koreas as separate states.
That marked the first time North Korea included a territorial clause in its constitution.
Last month, Kim pledged to further strengthen the country’s nuclear capabilities while maintaining a hard-line stance toward South Korea, which he has called the “most hostile” state.
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Kim Jong Un reportedly observed missile test launches in North Korea on Sunday, April 12, 2026. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service)
Kim has also accused the United States of “state terrorism and aggression,” and signaled North Korea could take a more active role in opposition to Washington amid rising global tensions.
Fox News Digital’s Alex Nitzberg and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
US-Iran ceasefire holds as Tehran warns Washington against attacks on tankers and Israel kills 24 people in Lebanon.
Published On 10 May 2026
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