BBC News Briefing

27 August, 2025

Sofia has long brown hair and brown eyes and is wearing a green top

Sofia Lotto Persio

Hello. Two children have been killed in a shooting at a Catholic school in the city of Minneapolis, in the US state of Minnesota. My colleagues have the latest. In China, Stephen McDonell reports on the efforts to save the endangered golden snub-nosed monkey. And finally, a time capsule prepared by Princess Diana in 1991 is unearthed.

TOP OF THE AGENDA

Shooting at Minneapolis Catholic school

Emergency responders and parked cars outside a sandstone building

Of those injured, 14 are children, and two are in a critical condition, police said. Credit: Reuters

Two children aged eight and 10 were killed and 17 people were injured during a shooting in Minneapolis that occurred during morning Mass at Annunciation Catholic School, police have confirmed. The school, located in southern Minneapolis, is home to students in kindergarten through eighth grade. It had been welcoming students back from summer break this week. Police said a gunman, who was armed with a rifle, shotgun and pistol, shot through the church windows. Police believe the shooter took his own life.

What we know

GET UP TO SPEED

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Painting looted by Nazis has vanished again

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AT THE SCENE

Shennongjia, China

Saving the rare snub-nosed monkey

Golden snub-nosed monkeys are slow to reproduce, with only one offspring at a time, every two years.

Efforts to preserve an endangered sub-species of snub-nosed monkeys are bearing fruit. In the early 1990s, there were fewer than 500 in the wild. Now, the Shennongjia National Park Scientific Research Institute counts more than 1,600 monkeys, with hopes to pass 2,000 in the next decade.

stephen has short dark hair and brown eyes. He is wearing a white shirt against a white background.

Stephen McDonell, China correspondent

Prof Yang Jingyuan has spent his entire working life trying to understand and protect the golden snub-nosed monkeys, which exist only in these mountains in Hubei province. He took us into the forest to meet them.

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I asked if it was true that he now understood what many of their noises meant. "Yes," he said. "Yeeee is telling others the area is safe. They can come over. Wu-ka means it's dangerous. Be careful." And, sure enough, there he was making various noises as the monkeys came down out of the trees, holding our hands, touching us and checking out the humans.

Keep reading

Gibbons island: In 2020, a rope bridge offered a lifeline to the rare primates, whose forest on Hainan island was badly damaged by a landslide.

Finless porpoise: Earlier this month, Stephen reported on the efforts to save one of the last large animal species living in China's Yangtze River.

Two glass kilner jars are seen. One has a hand around it and contains dried chickpeas. The other contains rice.

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