TV News LIES

A suicide bombing by Islamic State (IS) targeting a church in Damascus has killed 22 people and wounded 63, Syrian state media have said.

The attack on Sunday night was the first major IS operation and the first suicide bombing in Syria since former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad was toppled in December and replaced by an Islamist-led government.

A man affiliated with IS entered the Greek Orthodox Saint Elias church in the old Christian quarter of Damascus during prayers, opened fire and then detonated an explosive vest while inside the church, Syria’s interior ministry said. Eyewitnesses inside the church reported a second gunman who did not blow himself up, but also shot at the 150 or so worshippers present.

“People were praying safely under the eyes of God,” said Fadi Ghattas, who said he saw at least 20 people killed. “There were 350 people praying at the church.”

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U.S. officials say that strikes conducted on three key Iranian nuclear sites have devastated its nuclear program, but independent experts analyzing commercial satellite imagery say the nation's long-running nuclear enterprise is far from destroyed.

"At the end of the day there are some really important things that haven't been hit," says Jeffrey Lewis, a professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, who tracks Iran's nuclear facilities. "If this ends here, it's a really incomplete strike."

In particular Lewis says the strike doesn't seem to have touched Iran's stocks of highly enriched uranium.

"Today, it still has that material and we still don't know where it is," he says.

The Iranian Parliament on Sunday approved a measure to close the Strait of Hormuz after the United States bombed three nuclear sites in Iran.

The strait, located between Iran and Oman, remains a critical oil choke point, and closing it could have serious implications for both the global and U.S. economy.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in several Sunday interviews, warned against shutting down the strait, calling the move “suicidal” for the regime. Rubio also called on China — Iran’s most crucial oil customer — to encourage the country against shutting it down.

“I encourage the Chinese government in Beijing to call them about that, because they heavily depend on the Straits of Hormuz for their oil,” Rubio said on Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo.”

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At least eight people were killed when a hot air balloon crashed in Brazil, authorities said on June 21.

The balloon was carrying 21 people and caught fire during its tourism flight in the early morning hours in the southern state of Santa Catarina, the local fire department said, according to Reuters. It crashed in the city of Praia Grande, Reuters reported. Thirteen survivors were taken to hospitals.

Santa Catarina Gov. Jorginho Mello said he was monitoring the situation and providing support for the victims and families, calling it a "tragedy" in a video posted to social media.

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