World

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met troops on the frontlines in Donbas Sunday as heavy fighting raged in the eastern industrial region that Moscow has focused its forces on taking.

Zelensky visited command posts and frontline positions in Lysychansk, which sits across the Siverskyi Donets river from Severodonetsk, where Ukrainian troops were pushing back against Russian forces who had earlier appeared on the verge of taking the strategic city.

He also visited Bakhmut, to the southwest in the Donetsk region of Donbas, and talked with servicemen, the presidency said.

“I want to thank you for your great work, for your service, for protecting all of us, our state. I am grateful to everyone,” he told them. “Take care of yourselves!”

On his working visit Zelensky “got himself acquainted with the operational situation on the frontline of defence,” the presidency said.

“I am proud of everyone whom I met, whom I shook hands with, with whom I communicated, whom I supported,” Zelensky said in his daily evening address after his visit.

The president said he also travelled to Zaporizhzhia in the southeast to meet with residents of Mariupol who had managed to leave the port city that was destroyed by months of Russian bombardment.

“Each family has its own story. Most were without men,” he said.

“Someone’s husband went to war, someone’s is in captivity, someone’s, unfortunately, died. A tragedy. No home, no loved one. But we must live for the children. True heroes –- they are among us.”

Zelensky’s trip to the battlefield gave him an important firsthand view of military operations and was a morale booster for his frontline troops, former Australian army general Mick Ryan said.

It also demonstrated “he has total trust in his army” and served to heighten the contrast between his leadership style and that of his Russian opponent Vladimir Putin.

“An important characteristic demonstrated by Zelensky is his willingness to take personal risk to visit soldiers in the field, and get his own sense of how military operations are unfolding,” Ryan tweeted Monday.

“This is an important way that Zelensky differentiates himself from his adversary.

“I am pretty sure that Putin will not be accepting invitations to visit the poorly fed and led — but well armed — Russian troops in Ukraine at any point in the near future.”

Zelensky previously visited frontlines at the end of May, while there is no indication Putin has been anywhere near the battlefield since he launched his invasion.

Five people were gunned down and two dozen others wounded in a pair of weekend mass shootings in the United States, the latest in a string of deadly gun attacks that have left lawmakers scrambling to tackle the crisis.

The shootings — late Saturday in Philadelphia and early Sunday in Chattanooga, Tennessee — further jolted a country facing a gun violence epidemic that has already claimed several thousand American lives this year and shows no signs of abating.

They come as polarized US senators find themselves under pressure to craft a measure that codifies at least basic, preliminary steps to help reduce the carnage.

In Philadelphia, two men and a woman were killed when multiple people opened fire on a crowd at a popular South Street nightlife area.

Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said one of the victims had gotten into a fight with another man, which could have been the cause of the shooting.

The two others were “innocent bystanders,” she told reporters.

An eruption of violence in Chattanooga resulted in 14 people being shot, including two killed, while another person died and two more were injured after they were struck by vehicles fleeing the scene, police chief Celeste Murphy said, adding “several” victims remained in critical condition.

The pre-dawn incident occurred near a nightclub in a downtown section of the city of 180,000.

As of mid-Sunday no arrests had been made in either case, Murphy and Philadelphia media said.

Such gun violence has become almost commonplace in America, with more than a  half-dozen other shootings recorded over the weekend in which multiple people were killed, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which tracks shootings nationwide.

But the shock felt over recent mass shootings at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York and an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, which saw 10 and 21 people gunned down respectively, have spurred ardent cries for action.

Democratic Senator Chris Murphy has been working with a bipartisan group of senators on reform measures — a heavy lift with Republicans routinely rejecting most forms of gun control.

Senator Murphy said Sunday the group hoped to hammer together a legislative package that draws at least 10 Republican votes on top of expected support from nearly every Democrat.

“I think the possibility of success is better than ever before,” he told CNN. 

The emerging package, he said, would probably include “significant mental health investment, school safety money, and some modest but impactful changes in gun laws,” including an expansion of background checks for gun buyers.

“Congress needs to do their jobs and pass commonsense regulation that will help stop this nonsense,” an angry Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly told reporters.

He called for “mandatory background checks and prohibiting high-capacity magazines that allow shooters to hurt dozens of people without even having to reload.” 

– ‘Guttural screaming’ –

Warmer weather tends to bring a spike in US violence, and in addition to the massacres in Texas and New York, recent weeks have seen mass shootings at a hospital in Oklahoma and a church in California.

Bystander Joe Smith, 23, told The Philadelphia Inquirer his mind had flashed to the recent incidents when he heard shots ring out Saturday.

“There was guttural screaming,” he told the newspaper.

While Republicans have successfully blocked most efforts at gun control for years, some have recently spoken out for change.

In conservative, gun-loving Texas, more than 250 self-declared firearm enthusiasts, including donors to Republican Governor Greg Abbott, signed an open letter supporting efforts at bipartisan gun reform, the Dallas Morning News reported.

The letter, running as a full-page ad in the newspaper, endorsed an expansion of background checks, raising the age to buy guns to 21, and creating “red flag” laws intended to keep guns from people deemed to be at risk of violence.

US President Joe Biden last week called for new gun control legislation. On Sunday he renewed his call for restrictions on semi-automatic rifles.

“If we can’t ban assault weapons as we should, we must at least raise the age to buy assault weapons to 21,” he tweeted.

A CBS News/YouGov poll published Sunday shows 62 percent of Americans back a nationwide ban on semi-automatic rifles. Support is even higher for background checks on all gun buyers (81 percent) and “red flag” laws (72 percent).

US gun violence has killed 18,574 people so far in 2022, including nearly 10,300 suicides, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

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Gunmen with explosives stormed a Catholic church and opened fire in southwest Nigeria on Sunday, killing “many” worshippers and wounding others, the government and police said.

The violence at St. Francis Catholic Church in Owo town in Ondo State erupted during the morning service in a rare attack in the southwest of Nigeria, where jihadists and criminal gangs operate in other regions.

Pope Francis said in a statement he had learned of the “death of dozens of faithful”, many children, during the celebration of the Christian holiday of the Pentecost.

“While the details of the incident are being clarified, Pope Francis prays for the victims and for the country,” he said.

No group claimed responsibility for the attack.

The motives and the exact death toll were not immediately clear, but President Muhammadu Buhari condemned the “heinous killing of worshippers”.

State police spokeswoman Ibukun Odunlami said the gunmen also attacked the church with explosives, leaving an unknown number of worshippers dead.

“It’s still premature to say exactly how many people were killed. But many worshippers lost their lives while others were injured in the attack,” she told AFP.

A spokesman for the Ondo State governor’s office said they would not be giving an official casualty figure for the moment.

But a witness, who gave his name as Abayomi, told AFP at least 20 worshippers had died in the attack.

“I was passing through the area when I heard a loud explosion and gunshots inside the church,” he said.

He said he saw at least five gunmen on the church premises before he ran for safety.

– ‘Vile and satanic attack’ –

Attacks on religious sites are particularly sensitive in Nigeria where tensions sometimes flare between communities in a country with a mostly Christian south and a predominantly Muslim north.

Gun and bomb attacks are rare in Ondo state, but Nigeria’s military is battling a 12-year-old jihadist insurgency in the northeast, gangs in the northwest and separatist agitation in the southeast.

Boko Haram jihadist group in the northeast targeted churches in the past as part of Nigeria’s conflict that has killed 40,000 and displaced 2 million more.

Kidnapping assaults are common in most parts of Nigeria but mass gun attacks like Sunday’s violence are rare in the country’s relatively peaceful southwest.

Ondo state governor Rotimi Akeredolu said Sunday’s attack was a “vile and satanic attack” and appealed to the security forces to track down the assailants.

The attack comes a day before the ruling APC party starts primaries for its candidate in the 2023 election to replace Buhari, a former army commander who steps down after two terms in office.

Security will be a major challenge for whoever wins the race to govern Africa’s most populous country and the continent’s largest economy.

Parts of northwest and north-central Nigeria in particular have been increasingly plagued by heavily armed gangs who raid villages and target communities and schools for mass kidnapping attacks.

Queen Elizabeth II on Sunday brought the curtain down on her historic Platinum Jubilee celebrations, making another public appearance on the last of four days of festivities and vowing to maintain her record-breaking reign.

The 96-year-old monarch, who has been troubled by mobility problems, appeared for the first time in person since Thursday on the Buckingham Palace balcony after the Trooping the Colour military parade.

Her exertions at the start of the celebrations had forced her to pull out of a thanksgiving church service on Friday, plus the Epsom Derby horse race and a star-studded concert on Saturday.

Huge crowds stretching hundreds of metres down The Mall outside the palace cheered as she re-emerged onto the balcony briefly on Sunday afternoon.

It followed a public parade reflecting changes in music, dance, fashion, culture and society since she came to the throne in 1952.

Dressed in green with a matching hat, her white gloved hand clutching a walking stick, she was flanked by the three future kings: princes Charles, William and George.

In a statement issued shortly after, the monarch said she had been “humbled and deeply touched” by the turnout for her Platinum Jubilee celebrations and “inspired by the kindness, joy and kinship that has been so evident in recent days”.

Britain’s longest-serving sovereign added: “While I may not have attended every event in person, my heart has been with you all; and I remain committed to serving you to the best of my ability, supported by my family.” 

– Pageant –

Sunday’s £15-million ($18.7-million, 17.5-million-euro) “Platinum Jubilee Pageant”, featuring some 10,000 people, began with a parade of armed forces from the UK and the Commonwealth she heads.

The queen’s hologram was projected onto the sovereign’s 260-year-old Gold State Coach that led the celebration of her reign.

Some 6,000 disabled and non-disabled performers joined in to celebrate the queen’s life and reign.

Highlights included an aerial artist suspended under a vast helium balloon, known as a heliosphere, bearing the sovereign’s image.

A carnival included a giant oak tree flanked with maypole dancers, a huge moving wedding cake, bangra drummers, steel bands, African-Caribbean carnival animals and a towering dancing dragon.

In the royal box, Charles kept his four-year-old grandson Prince Louis entertained, bouncing him on his knees to the rhythm of the music.

Singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran wrapped up the pageant with a rendition of his 2017 hit “Perfect”, and the national anthem “God Save the Queen”.

Elsewhere across the country, more than 10 million people are estimated to have braved overcast skies to share food with friends, family and neighbours to mark the occasion.

– End of era –

Two public holidays on Thursday and Friday, longer pub opening hours, street parties and other events have temporarily lifted the gloom of soaring inflation, political turmoil and two years of enforced Covid closures.

Many saw it as a once-in-a-generation event to mark the closing of an extraordinary chapter in British life and to recognise its most famous national symbol.

A peak of 13.4 million viewers watched Saturday night’s concert on television, the BBC said.

During the celebrations, the queen put in a surprise on-screen appearance, taking tea with the beloved children’s book and film character Paddington Bear, in a pre-recorded sequence that had been kept a carefully guarded secret.

She previously made a cameo with James Bond actor Daniel Craig for the opening of the London 2012 Olympics.

A running theme has been the dramatic social, political and technological changes in Britain and the world since the queen came to the throne — and her constant presence through it all.

With Charles now 73, the next jubilee — probably for his eldest son William’s 25th year on the throne — could be at least 50 years away.

“She’s been the queen my whole life,” said visiting American John Barli, 66.

“She’s the world’s grandmother as far I’m concerned,” he told the Sunday Times.

But there was also acknowledgement the second Elizabethan era — five centuries after the first — is nearly over.

– ‘Long goodbye’ –

A spectacular light show illuminated the palace and the night sky above it on Saturday, including images of a corgi, a handbag and a teapot.

One message said simply: “Thank you, Ma’am.”

“Inevitably, this celebration had a valedictory feel,” the Sunday Telegraph said of Saturday’s concert.

“But there is also the keen awareness that we will never see the likes of this monarch again.”

“It won’t be the same without our queen,” Julie Blewitt, 56, from Manchester, told AFP outside St Paul’s Cathedral on Friday. 

The Observer weekly called it “part of a long goodbye that began with her solitary attendance at Prince Philip’s funeral last year”.

The queen has gradually been preparing the public for the familiar figure of Charles to take over as king.

Yet the institution that Charles and, after him, William will lead will be different from the one Elizabeth inherited in the aftermath of World War II.

Then, Britain was still a major colonial power but republican movements are gathering pace in the 14 Commonwealth countries where the queen is also head of state, including Australia and in the Caribbean.

In her statement of thanks, Sunday, the queen said she hoped that the “renewed sense of togetherness” generated by the weekend’s celebrations “will be felt for many years to come”.

That hope seems unlikely to be realised.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson, struggling with the fall-out from “Partygate”, the damaging revelations over lockdown breaches in Downing Street, was booed by the crowd at one of the Jubilee ceremonies this weekend.

He could face a no-confidence motion to topple him as soon as this week, according to some parliamentary observers.

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Sunday that Moscow will hit new targets if the West supplies Ukraine with long-range missiles, hours after several explosions rocked the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.

The battle for the control of the strategically important eastern city of Severodonetsk also raged on, with regional governor Sergiy Gaiday saying Ukrainian forces now control “half of the city”.

Thousands of civilians have been killed and millions forced to flee their homes since Putin ordered Russian troops into Ukraine on February 24.

The Russian leader said long-range missile supplies being sent to Ukraine meant that “we will draw the appropriate conclusions and use our arms… to strike targets we haven’t hit before”.

He did not specify which targets he meant.

Putin’s comments came after the United States last week said it would supply Ukraine with advanced missile systems, the latest in a long list of weaponry sent or pledged for the pro-Western country.

Ukraine has asked for ever more potent arms and its deputy defence minister stressed Sunday this support was needed until Russia was defeated.

“We have already entered into a protracted war and we will need constant support,” Ganna Malyar told local media.

“The West must understand that its help cannot be a one-time thing, but something that continues until our victory,” she added.

– ‘They are bombing everything’ –

Ukrainian officials earlier Sunday said Russian missiles hit railway infrastructure sites in the first such strikes on Kyiv since April 28.

Russia said the strikes had destroyed tanks supplied to Ukraine by eastern European countries.

“High-precision, long-range missiles fired by the Russian Aerospace Forces on the outskirts of Kyiv destroyed T-72 tanks supplied by eastern European countries and other armoured vehicles that were in hangars,” Russian defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said.

One person was wounded, and AFP reporters saw several buildings with blown-out windows near one of the sites that was targeted.

Leonid, a 63-year-old resident who used to work at the facility, said he heard three or four explosions.

“There is nothing military there but they are bombing everything,” he said.

Vasyl, 43, said he heard five blasts.

“People are afraid now,” he said, walking back to his damaged home with two loaves of bread.

– ‘It’s a horror show’ –

In the east of the country, Russian and Ukrainian forces fought for control of Severodonetsk — the largest city still in Ukrainian hands in the Lugansk region of the Donbas region.

Russian forces have been making slow but steady advances in the region in recent weeks after being beaten back of retreating from other parts of the country, including Kyiv.

“The Russians were in control of about 70 percent of the city, but have been forced back over the past two days,” Gaiday said on Telegram.

“They are afraid to move freely around the city.”

Russia’s army had claimed Saturday some Ukrainian military units were withdrawing from Severodonetsk, but mayor Oleksandr Striuk said Ukrainian forces were fighting to retake the city.

“We are currently doing everything necessary to re-establish total control” of the city, he said in an interview broadcast on Telegram.

In the neighbouring city of Lysychansk, pensioner Oleksandr Lyakhovets said he had just enough time to save his cat before the flames engulfed his flat after it was hit by a Russian missile.

“They shoot here endlessly… It’s a horror show,” the 67-year-old told AFP.

On Sunday, the press service of the Ukrainian president’s office reported nine civilians killed in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions from shelling.

– ‘Real negotiations’ –

Western powers have imposed increasingly stringent sanctions on Russia but divisions have emerged on how to act, particularly on whether to engage in dialogue with Russia or not.

French President Emmanuel Macron said Friday Putin had committed a “fundamental error” but that Russia should not be “humiliated” to allow for a diplomatic solution.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba reacted Saturday by saying such calls “only humiliate France” and any country taking a similar position.

Speaking from the apostolic palace in St Peter’s Square Sunday, Pope Francis renewed calls for “real negotiations” to end what he called the “increasingly dangerous escalation” of the war.

– Football defeat –

Apart from the human toll, the conflict has caused widespread damage to Ukraine’s cultural heritage.

On Saturday, Ukrainian officials reported a large Orthodox wooden monastery, a popular pilgrim site, had burnt down and blamed Russia shelling.

Russian troops now occupy a fifth of Ukraine’s territory, according to Kyiv, and Moscow has imposed a blockade on its Black Sea ports, sparking fears of a global food crisis. Ukraine and Russia are among the top wheat exporters in the world.

The United Nations said it was leading intense negotiations with Russia to allow Ukraine’s grain harvest to leave the country.

Away from the battlefield, Wales dashed Ukraine’s dreams of reaching its first football World Cup since 2006 with a 1-0 victory.

Before the game in Cardiff City Stadium Sunday, the Ukrainian national anthem was applauded by all sides.

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Kazakhstan was set to pass changes to its constitution through a referendum Sunday, exit polls showed, after deadly unrest ended founding leader Nursultan Nazarbayev’s three-decade grip on Central Asia’s richest country.

Three exit polls showed constitutional changes passing with more than 74 percent of voters in support, a government Telegram channel said, with official results expected Monday.

The January bloodshed — which grew out of peaceful protests over a spike in car fuel prices — left more than 230 people dead and prompted authorities to call in troops from a Russia-led security bloc.

The drive for a “New Kazakhstan” in the wake of the violence has come from the man that Nazarbayev hand-picked to replace him as president in 2019, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.

Tokayev, 69, describes the snap referendum as a shift from “super-presidential” rule that will strengthen parliament.

But it is the absence of special privileges for 81-year-old Nazarbayev that is the most eye-catching change to the constitution.

Prior to January’s crisis, Tokayev was widely seen as ruling in the shadow of Nazarbayev and his super-rich relatives. 

Even after stepping down as president, Nazarbayev retained the constitutional title of “Elbasy”, or “Leader of the Nation” — a role that afforded him influence over policymaking regardless of his formal position.

The new constitution does away with that status. 

Another amendment prevents relatives of the president from holding government positions — a clear nod to the influence of Nazarbayev’s family and in-laws, who lost powerful positions in the aftermath of the violence.

Three government-endorsed pollsters all indicated strong support for the changes after voting concluded on Sunday night, with the lowest result showing 74.8 percent in favour and the highest showing 79.4 percent in favour.

Kazakhstan’s central electoral commission claimed a preliminary turnout of 68.4 percent for the vote.  

– ‘A formality’  –

Polling stations in the largest city Almaty saw a slow trickle of voters in cloudless, breezy summer conditions.

Ayan, an 18-year-old student voting for the first time, said he welcomed the former president’s removal from the basic law. 

“He has his place in our history textbooks, but all citizens should be equal in the constitution,” he said, after casting his vote at his university, where a small group of activists protested for the release of political prisoners and against the vote. 

In the capital Nur-Sultan, named for Nazarbayev, a 46-year-old businessman called Bolat told AFP that he did not intend to vote.  

“It’s a formality to cement the position of the current leadership. The result will be the same,” he said. 

Kazakhstan’s New Year crisis remains poorly understood, with a days-long internet shutdown at the peak of the unrest helping to further obscure the events. 

Protests stirred in the oil-producing west over a New Year fuel price hike, but it was Almaty — 2,000 kilometres (1,200 miles) away — that became the epicentre of armed clashes, looting and arson.

Nur-Sultan, which was called Astana prior to 2019, remained largely untouched. 

– Leadership struggle – 

Tokayev blamed the violence on “terrorists” seeking to seize power and issued a “shoot-to-kill” order to Kazakh troops.

But the arrest on treason charges of a Nazarbayev ally who served as national security chief at the time fuelled speculation that a leadership struggle was at the heart of the violence.

After stability was restored, Tokayev criticised Nazarbayev for allowing inequality to fester, while crediting his mentor’s state-building achievements.

Both former and current presidents are allies of neighbouring Russia, and the arrival of a 2,000-plus detachment of peacekeepers from a Moscow-led security bloc bolstered Tokayev’s control over the situation in January.

The Kremlin claimed the intervention requested by Tokayev did not extend to any political settlement, which was “the internal affair of Kazakhstan”.  

Nazarbayev has made few public appearances since the crisis, but cast his vote in the capital Sunday, after expressing support for Tokayev and the changes. 

In an interview published Monday he said that his relatives should be “held accountable” if they committed crimes, but were entitled to a fair trial — an apparent reference to nephew Kairat Satybaldy, a businessman presently detained on embezzlement charges.

Queen Elizabeth II on Sunday brought the curtain down on her historic Platinum Jubilee celebrations, making a rare public appearance on the last of four days of festivities and vowing to maintain her record-breaking reign.

The 96-year-old monarch, who has been dogged by problems with walking and standing, appeared for the first time in person since two showings Thursday on the Buckingham Palace balcony after the Trooping the Colour military parade.

That effort forced her to pull out of a thanksgiving church service on Friday, plus the Epsom Derby horse race and a star-studded concert on Saturday.

Huge crowds stretching hundreds of metres (yards) down The Mall outside the palace cheered as she re-emerged onto the balcony briefly Sunday afternoon.

It followed a public parade reflecting changes in music, dance, fashion, culture and society since she came to the throne way back in 1952.

Dressed in green with a matching hat, her white gloved hand clutching a walking stick, she was flanked by the three future kings: princes Charles, William and George.

In a statement issued shortly after, the monarch said she had been “humbled and deeply touched” by the turnout for her Platinum Jubilee celebrations and “inspired by the kindness, joy and kinship that has been so evident in recent days”.

“While I may not have attended every event in person, my heart has been with you all; and I remain committed to serving you to the best of my ability, supported by my family,” Britain’s longest-serving sovereign added.

– Pageant –

Sunday’s £15-million ($18.7-million, 17.5-million-euro) “Platinum Jubilee Pageant”, featuring some 10,000 people, began with a parade of armed forces from the UK and the Commonwealth she heads.

The queen’s hologram was projected onto the sovereign’s 260-year-old Gold State Coach that led the celebration of her record-breaking reign.

Some 6,000 disabled and non-disabled performers from street theatre, carnival and puppetry joined in to celebrate the queen’s life and reign.

Highlights included an aerial artist suspended under a vast helium balloon, known as a heliosphere, bearing the sovereign’s image.

The carnival included a giant oak tree flanked with maypole dancers, a huge moving wedding cake, bangra drummers, steel bands, plus African-Caribbean carnival animals and a towering dancing dragon.

In the royal box, Charles kept his four-year-old grandson Prince Louis entertained, bouncing him on his knees to the rhythm of the music.

Singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran wrapped up the pageant with a rendition of his 2017 hit “Perfect”, and the national anthem “God Save the Queen”.

Elsewhere across the country, more than 10 million people are estimated to have braved overcast skies to share food with friends, family and neighbours to mark the occasion.

– End of era –

Two public holidays on Thursday and Friday, longer pub opening hours, street parties and other events have temporarily lifted the gloom of soaring inflation and political turmoil plus two years of enforced Covid closures.

Many saw it as a once-in-a-generation event to mark the closing of an extraordinary chapter in British life and to recognise its most famous national symbol.

On Saturday night, she put in a surprise on-screen appearance, taking tea with the beloved children’s book and film character Paddington Bear.

In the pre-recorded video, she tapped out the drumbeat of rock band Queen’s “We Will Rock You” — the concert’s opening number — on a fine china teacup and saucer to get the party started.

A peak of 13.4 million viewers watched the concert on television, the BBC said.

The queen previously made a cameo with James Bond actor Daniel Craig for the opening of the London 2012 Olympics.

A running theme has been the dramatic social, political and technological changes in Britain and the world since the queen came to the throne — and her constant presence through it all.

With Charles now 73, the next jubilee — probably for his eldest son William’s 25th year on the throne — could be at least 50 years away.

“She’s been the queen my whole life,” said visiting American John Barli, 66.

“She’s the world’s grandmother as far I’m concerned,” he told the Sunday Times.

But there was also acknowledgement the second Elizabethan era — five centuries after the first — is nearly over.

– ‘Long goodbye’ –

A spectacular light show illuminated the palace and the night sky above it on Saturday, including images of a corgi, a handbag and a teapot.

One message said simply: “Thank you, Ma’am.”

“Inevitably, this celebration had a valedictory feel,” the Sunday Telegraph said of Saturday’s concert, which was headlined by Diana Ross.

“But there is also the keen awareness that we will never see the likes of this monarch again.”

“It won’t be the same without our queen,” Julie Blewitt, 56, from Manchester, told AFP outside St Paul’s Cathedral on Friday. 

“It’s such a shame she won’t be here for much longer.”

The Observer weekly called it “part of a long goodbye that began with her solitary attendance at Prince Philip’s funeral last year”.

The queen has gradually been preparing the public for the familiar figure of Charles to take over as king.

The jubilee was “an opportunity to reflect on all that has been achieved during the last 70 years, as we look to the future with confidence and enthusiasm”, she said in a message on Wednesday.

Yet the institution that Charles and, after him, William will lead will be different from the one Elizabeth inherited in the aftermath of World War II.

Then, Britain was still a major colonial power but republican movements are gathering pace in the 14 Commonwealth countries where the queen is also head of state, including Australia and in the Caribbean.

Five people were killed and two dozen others wounded in a pair of weekend mass shootings in the United States, the latest in a string of deadly gun attacks that have left lawmakers scrambling to tackle the crisis.

The shootings — late Saturday in Philadelphia and early Sunday in Chattanooga, Tennessee — further jolted a country facing a gun violence epidemic that has already claimed several thousand American lives this year and shows no signs of abating.

And they come as polarized US senators find themselves under pressure to craft a measure that codifies at least basic, preliminary steps to help reduce the carnage.

In Philadelphia, two men and a woman were killed when multiple people opened fire on a crowd at a popular nightlife area, Police Inspector D.F. Pace told reporters.

He said officers “observed several active shooters shooting into the crowd” of “hundreds of individuals enjoying South Street, as they do every single weekend.”

A chaotic eruption of violence in Chattanooga resulted in 14 people shot including two killed, while another person died and two more were injured after they were struck by vehicles fleeing the scene, police chief Celeste Murphy told reporters, adding “several” victims remained in critical condition.

The pre-dawn incident occurred near a nightclub in a downtown section of Chattanooga, a city of 180,000.

As of mid-Sunday no arrests had been made in either case, Murphy and Philadelphia media said.

Such gun violence has become almost commonplace in America, but the shock felt over recent mass shootings at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York and an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas have spurred ardent cries for action.

Democratic Senator Chris Murphy has been working with a bipartisan group of senators on reform measures — a heavy lift with Republicans routinely rejecting most forms of gun control.

Senator Murphy said Sunday the group hoped to hammer together a legislative package that draws at least 10 Republican votes on top of expected support from nearly every Democrat.

“I think the possibility of success is better than ever before,” he told CNN. “But I think the consequences of failure for our entire democracy are more significant than ever.”

The emerging package, he said, would probably include “significant mental health investment, school safety money, and some modest but impactful changes in gun laws” including an expansion of background checks for gun buyers.

– ‘Unanswered questions’ –

Numerous Philadelphia officers were patrolling South Street when the first shots were heard, a police deployment that Pace described as “standard” for the popular area on summer weekend nights.

But investigators still had “a lot of unanswered questions,” Pace said.

Warmer weather tends to bring a spike in US violence, and in addition to the massacres in Texas and New York, recent weeks have seen mass shootings at a hospital in Oklahoma and a church in California.

Bystander Joe Smith, 23, told The Philadelphia Inquirer his mind had flashed to the recent incidents when he heard shots ring out Saturday.

“Once it started, I didn’t think it was going to stop,” he told the newspaper. “There was guttural screaming. I just heard screams.”

While Republicans have successfully blocked most efforts at gun control for years, some have recently spoken out for change.

In conservative, gun-loving Texas, more than 250 self-declared firearm enthusiasts, including donors to Republican Governor Greg Abbott, signed an open letter supporting efforts at bipartisan gun reform, the Dallas Morning News reported.

The letter, running as a full-page ad in the newspaper, endorsed an expansion of background checks, raising the age to buy guns to 21, and creating “red flag” laws intended to keep guns from people deemed to be at risk of violence.

US President Joe Biden last week called for new gun control legislation, and on Sunday he renewed his call for restrictions on semi-automatic rifles.

“If we can’t ban assault weapons as we should, we must at least raise the age to buy assault weapons to 21,” he posted on Twitter.

A CBS News/YouGov poll published Sunday shows most Americans — 62 percent — back a nationwide ban on semi-automatic rifles. Support is even higher for background checks on all gun buyers (81 percent) and “red flag” laws (72 percent).

US gun violence has killed 18,574 people so far in 2022, including nearly 10,300 suicides, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which tracks shootings nationwide.