- Brazil lifts ban on Musk's X, ending standoff over disinformation
- Harris holds slight edge nationally over Trump: poll
- Chelsea edge Real Madrid in Women's Champions League, Lyon win
- Japan PM to dissolve parliament for 'honeymoon' snap election
- 'Diego Lives': Immersive Maradona exhibit hits Barcelona
- Brazil Supreme Court lifts ban on Musk's X
- Scientists sound AI alarm after winning physics Nobel
- Six-year-old girl among missing after Brazil landslide
- Nobel-winning physicist 'unnerved' by AI technology he helped create
- Mexico president rules out new 'war on drugs'
- Israeli defense minister postpones trip to Washington: Pentagon
- Europe skipper Donald in talks with Garcia over Ryder return
- Kenya MPs vote to impeach deputy president in historic move
- Former US coach Berhalter named Chicago Fire head coach
- New York Jets fire head coach Saleh: team
- Australia crush New Zealand in Women's T20 World Cup
- US states accuse TikTok of harming young users
- 'Evacuate now, now, now': Florida braces for next hurricane
- US Supreme Court skeptical of challenge to 'ghost guns' regulation
- Sparks fly as Orban berates EU 'elites' in parliament trip
- US finalizes rule to remove lead pipes within a decade
- Solanke hungry for second England cap after seven-year wait
- Gilded canopy restored at Vatican basilica
- Zverev scrapes through, Djokovic cruises to Shanghai Masters last 16
- Trump secretly sent Covid tests to Putin: Bob Woodward book
- Gauff answers critics: 'It's hard to win all the time'
- Neural networks, machine learning? Nobel-winning AI science explained
- China says raised 'serious concerns' with US over trade curbs
- Boeing delivers 27 MAX jets in September despite strike
- German 'Maddie' suspect could be free in 2025 after cleared of other sex crimes
- Italy seek Nations League consistency as Germany continue rebuild
- From boom to budgeting as reality bites for Saudi football
- Stock markets diverge as Hong Kong sinks, oil prices fall
- US trade gap narrowest in five months as imports slip
- Stay and 'you are going to die': Florida braces for next hurricane
- England 96-1 after Salman's century lifts Pakistan to 556
- Hollywood star Idris Elba champions African cinema in Ghana
- Djokovic rolls Cobolli to make Shanghai Masters last 16
- Milan's Hernandez receives two-game suspension after referee rant
- Geoffrey Hinton, soft-spoken godfather of AI
- Ex-Barcelona and Spain great Iniesta retires aged 40
- Duo wins Physics Nobel for 'foundational' AI breakthroughs
- German 'Maddie' suspect could be free in 2025 after cleared of separate sex crimes
- China slaps provisional tariffs on EU brandy imports
- Ex-skipper Skelton eyes Wallabies November return
- Spanish great Iniesta leaves indelible legacy after retirement
- Indian Kashmir elects first regional government in a decade
- Hong Kong stocks crash, oil prices retreat on fading China boost
- Man City accuse Premier League of 'misleading' claims after legal case
- Duo wins Physics Nobel for key breakthroughs in AI
Ukraine MPs vote to ban Russia-linked Orthodox Church
Ukraine's parliament on Tuesday voted to ban the Russia-linked Ukrainian Orthodox Church, as Kyiv cuts religious, social and institutional ties with bodies it considers aligned with Moscow.
Kyiv has been trying to curb spiritual links with Russia for years -- a process that was accelerated by Moscow's 2022 invasion, which the powerful Russian Orthodox Church endorsed.
A majority of MPs approved the bill outlawing religious organisations linked with Russia, including the Russia-linked Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), which is linked to the Moscow patriarchate.
The bill needs to be signed by President Volodymyr Zelensky to come into force and will take years to implement, but still caused dismay among followers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
In Kyiv, believers were praying outside the Russian-affiliated part of the historic Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery, a normal scene since the section was closed to the public last year.
"There's no politics here. We just come and pray for our children and our loved ones... I've never seen any KGB agents," said 56-year-old Svetlana, who declined to give her name due to the sensitivity of the question.
In a lilac dress and matching headscarf, Svetlana said she had been baptised and married in the church and worried about its potential full closure.
"If they close, people will still pray in the streets, maybe we'll put up tents, there will be prayers anyway," Svetlana said.
- 'Everything is political' -
The schism between Ukrainian and Russian-linked Churches was triggered by Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the war between Kyiv and Moscow-backed separatists in the east.
The Istanbul-based head of the Eastern Orthodox Church granted a breakaway wing, called the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), autocephaly -- religious independence -- from the Moscow Patriarchate in 2019.
The Moscow-linked Ukrainian Orthodox Church officially broke ties with its Russian counterpart in 2022, but some lawmakers have accused its leaders of collaborating with Russian clergymen despite the invasion.
"Everything is political. There can be no such thing as art, sports, or even religion outside politics," reacted 21-year-old Igor.
He was in the Ukrainian-affiliated part of the Lavra monastery, which remains open.
"I actually totally support this ban," he said, accusing the Russian Orthodox Church of being a Kremlin agent that "has metastasized so much that we will be fighting it for decades."
The bill was welcomed by Zelensky's office.
"There will be no Moscow Church in Ukraine," Andriy Yermak, Zelensky's chief of staff, said on Telegram.
Lawmaker Iryna Gerashchenko called the vote historic.
"This is a matter of national security, not religion," she said in a post on Telegram.
In Moscow, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Ukraine was trying to "destroy... true Orthodoxy."
F.Schneider--AMWN