After more than 11 years abroad – a decade of it behind bars – former DR Congo warlord Jean-Pierre Bemba returned home on Wednesday to huge crowds and police firing teargas, reflecting the country’s high-voltage political mood.

Bemba, 55, throwing down the gauntlet to his rival President Joseph Kabila, has vowed to contest twice-delayed elections due to take place on December 23.

He landed at Kinshasa from Belgium aboard a private plane after the International Criminal Court (ICC) acquitted him of war-crimes charges in June.

Tens of thousands of people, many of them chanting anti-Kabila slogans, gathered along the city’s main highway, prompting police to fire teargas to try to make a path for his open-topped Mercedes, an AFP reporter saw.

The crowd is the Democratic Republic of Congo’s largest politically-related gathering in two years – since 2016, Kabila has cracked down heavily on protests.

Analysts say Bemba’s return throws even more uncertainty into an already volatile election. Candidates must submit their applications by August 8 and physically be in the country to do so.

The DRC has never known a peaceful transition of power since it gained independence from Belgium in 1960 – and some experts fear the current crisis may spiral into bloodshed.

Two wars unfolded from 1996-97 and from 1998-2003 that sucked in other countries in central and southern Africa. Smaller, but still bloody, conflicts dog the centre and east of the vast country today.

Kabila tension 

Kabila, 47, took over from his father, Laurent-Desire Kabila, after he was assassinated by a bodyguard in 2001.

His regime has long had a reputation for corruption, inequality and unrest.

Kabila was scheduled to stand down at the end of 2016 after his second elected term, technically the last permitted under the constitution.

But he has stayed in office, invoking a constitutional clause enabling him to stay in power until a successor is elected.

He has refused to spell out whether he will seek a new term. Political sources say he has been lately scouting around for a favourable candidate that he could support, which would enable him officially to step down.

Dozens have died in anti-Kabila protests amid the mounting political uncertainty. The influential Roman Catholic Church has called for three days of popular mobilisation on August 12-14 should Kabila announce a re-election bid.

Hostility to the incumbent was clear in Wednesday’s chants, such as "Kabila, take care, your term is over," "Goodbye Kabila," and "Bemba, shave off his white beard."

"The last episode in the Kabila series is unfolding today. The film’s over," said a nurse who gave her name as Angelique.

Another rival to Kabila – tycoon Moise Katumbi, 53, a former governor of the mineral-rich province of Katanga – plans to return home on Friday from self-imposed exile abroad.

The third big opposition figure is Felix Tshisekedi of Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UPDS), which was headed by former prime minister Etienne Tshisekedi until his death last year.

Warlord past 

Bemba was once an assistant to former dictator Mobutu Sese Seko.

In the late 1980s, he founded the Movement for the Liberation of the Congo (MLC) – then a rebel group but now a political party – with help from neighbouring Uganda.

In 2003, he became vice-president under a peace deal to end the fighting. Bemba’s MLC had managed to overrun the country’s north.

Three years later, he stood against the incumbent Kabila in presidential elections and lost the run-off. He claimed the vote was rigged.

Bemba, in turn, was accused of treason when his bodyguards clashed with the army in Kinshasa and then fled in 2007, heading to Belgium, where he spent part of his youth.

He was then arrested in Europe on a warrant by the ICC for war crimes committed by his private army in the neighbouring Central African Republic between 2002-3, when its then president, Ange-Felix Patasse, sought his help to repel a coup attempt.

He was sentenced in The Hague in 2016 to 18 years before the conviction was overturned on appeal in June. The ICC declared Bemba could not be held responsible for crimes committed by his troops.

The court is due to issue a ruling in a separate case, in which Bemba was sentenced to jail and fined 300,000 euros ($350,000) in 2017 for bribing witnesses during his main trial.

But legal experts expect him to be released definitively if time spent behind bars is taken into account.

Thailand will ban imports of 432 types of scrap electronics within six months, an environment ministry official said on Thursday, the latest country to respond to China’s crackdown on imports of high-tech trash this year.

Southeast Asia nations fear they are the new dumping ground for the world’s trash after China banned the entry of several types of waste as part of a campaign against "foreign garbage".

Thailand’s ban comes weeks after regional neighbour Vietnam said it would stop issuing new licenses for waste imports and crack down on illegal shipments of paper, plastic and metal.

The Thai ban covers 432 types of electronic refuse – from electronic circuit boards to old television and radio parts – and will take effect within six months, a senior environment ministry official told Reuters on Thursday.

He said the ban was agreed at a meeting on Wednesday chaired by Surasak Kanchanarat, the environment minister.

Plastic waste exported from UK

"The meeting yesterday passed a resolution to stop importing 432 kinds of electronic waste and to ensure…that this is enforced within six months," said the official, who declined to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Mongukol Pruekwatana, director general of the department of industrial works, told Reuters a full list of banned items would be announced soon.

E-waste – commonly defined as any device with an electric cord or battery – can be mined for valuable metals such as gold, silver and copper. However, it can also include hazardous material such as lead, mercury and cadmium.

Surasak told Thai media on Wednesday that imports of some electronic appliances and second-hand devices would be allowed if these items can be repaired and reused.

Scrap metal, including aluminum, copper and steel, can still be imported for industrial use, but must be separated at the country of origin and cleaned, he said.

Thailand’s e-waste ban follows a series of raids that began in May on factories accused of illegally importing and processing electronic waste.

Environmentalists say waste once destined for China is being re-routed to Southeast Asia, and new laws are needed or existing laws better enforced to prevent illegal imports.

Vietnam’s central bank said on Wednesday it has asked banks to tighten lending to projects deemed environmentally unfriendly. It said banks must have strategies for environmental risk management by 2025.

Thailand also planned to ban imports of plastic waste in the next two years, the environment ministry official said, but he gave no details of the programme.

The death of a pilot whale in June found with some 80 pieces of plastic rubbish in its stomach focused attention on what environmentalists call Thailand’s "addiction" to plastic bags and packaging.

Thailand’s military government has said improving the country’s waste management infrastructure is a priority and set goals for 2021.

They included cutting the use of plastic bags and bottles in government agencies and businesses, and plastic bans in tourist destinations. A tax on plastic bags has also been mentioned, along with a target to recycle up to 60 percent of plastic by 2021.

Mexican security forces were on Wednesday searching for a newly elected congresswoman who was kidnapped at gunpoint by armed men on a highway in the central state of Hidalgo.

Norma Azucena Rodríguez Zamora, 32, was travelling with her driver and assistant when at least two gunmen opened fire on her vehicle, causing it to flip over and injuring the two staff members.

The men then dragged out the congresswoman and forced her into their car, reported to be a black VW Bora. 

Members of Ms Rodríguez’s party, the Left-wing PRD, demanded authorities do everything in their power to find her alive. 

The politician was due to take office on September 1 as a congresswoman for the neighbouring state of Veracruz, a hotbed of drug cartel activity that has suffered some of the worst violence in the country in recent years.

Tuesday’s ambush took place on the same highway where a mayor from the nearby state of Puebla, Genaro Negrete Urbano, was kidnapped in July. He was later shot dead, his body found earlier this month.

The kidnap of Ms Rodríguez, currently serving as mayor in the Veracruz town of Tihuatlán, is the latest act of violence surrounding Mexico’s July elections.

At least 48 candidates were murdered in the run-up to the landmark vote, in which Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a veteran Leftist, secured a decisive victory with promises of change amid widespread after decades of almost exclusively one-party rule. 

Mr Lopez Obrador, a former Mexico City mayor commonly referred to as Amlo, ran in two presidential elections as the candidate for the PRD before leaving the party for his own political movement, Morena.

Previously dismissed by many as a populist, Mr Lopez came to represent the hopes and frustrations of Mexicans angered by the endemic corruption and organised crime that has long ravaged the country.

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador: Mexico's Jeremy Corbyn to battle 'the mafia of power'

The outgoing ruling party, the PRI, governed Mexico for all of the last 90 years apart from the period of 2000-2012, when the centre-Right PAN took office.

The current president, Enrique Peña Nieto, pledged to calm the drug conflict that exploded in the mid-2000s  but under his tenure the violence has only increased. 

With almost 30,000 murders, 2017 was the deadliest year on record, and 2018 is on course to surpass that toll. 

Mr Lopez Obrador will be inaugurated on December 1 and must then confront a monumental challenge: how to deliver on the lofty promise of bringing an end to the bloodshed by the middle of his six-year-term. 

Russian military police have begun patrolling the demilitarised zone between Israel and Syria in the Golan Heights, highlighting Moscow’s increasing clout as a Middle Eastern power broker following its intervention in the civil war there.

“The Russian military police are pioneers in renewing patrols of the Golan Heights,” Lt Gen Sergei Kuralenko told journalists at a damaged United Nations observer post.

“There is almost no danger besides from mines. The whole demilitarised zone is under control now.”

Following the start of the Syrian conflict, militants drove out the UN peacekeepers that had served in the area since 1974.

The pockmarked guardhouses and discarded ammo and rocket-propelled grenade launcher boxes testified to the fierce fighting between Bashar Assad’s regime and the Nusra Front before government forces pushed the al-Qaeda-linked jihadist group from the post and the wider area last month.

The militants turned many of the UN posts into suicide bomber schools, Mr Kuralenko said during a tour organised by the Russian defence ministry.

The mission of Moscow’s forces is to help the UN disengagement observer force restart its monitoring of the zone, he said. They have mapped safe routes and accompanied UN observers down the MCM road through the DMZ this month, he added.

Russian military police have four bases in the area and will establish more on Bravo Line, the side of the zone held by Syria.

Vladimir Putin began backing his ally Assad with bombing runs in 2015, but the Russian role has expanded to include military advisers, police, private military contractors and, according to some reports, ground forces.

As it helped turned the conflict in Assad’s favour, Russia has positioned itself as a major voice in determining the post-war order, holding negotiations with rebels and serving as an intermediary with other governments in the region.

Meanwhile, Syria’s defence minister met with the head of the UN disengagement observer force to discuss coordinating peacekeepers’ deployment and opening the Quneitra gate for Syrians to cross from the Israeli-occupied area into Syria, state news agency SANA reported.

Benjamin Netanyahu has travelled to Russia to meet with Mr Putin and discuss Israel’s concerns over Assad’s other major backer Iran, which has a long history of cooperation with Russia.

Moscow said this month it brokered a deal to keep Iranian forces at least 50 miles back from Israel’s border with Syria in the Golan Heights. At the same time, it has said Iran cannot be completely removed from Syria.

Mr Kuralenko said Russia had held negotiations with Israel, and Jerusalem was aware of Russia’s newly established presence in the zone. The two sides are in regular communication.

“Russian military activities support the security of Israel and they know this,” he said.

Muhamed Ahmad, a brigadier general in the Syrian military police, said Russia had played a lead role in driving out the militants, who he claimed had been backed by Western governments. He said the Damascus government’s only contact with the “enemy” Israel was through Russia and the UN.

Israel captured most of the Golan from Syria during the Six Day War in 1967, after which the UN-administered demilitarised zone was created in the easternmost portion of the heights.

Amid the turmoil of the Syrian civil war, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant also occupied part of the DMZ. More than 1,000 Russian sappers are working to de-mine this and other areas in the south of Syria, Mr Kuralenko said.

“The main problem is that there are lots of explosives, especially in the southern part where Isil was,” he said.

The general suggested Russian intelligence agents were also helping in the struggle against radical opposition fighters.

“Some of the militants disappeared into the population, that’s the work of our secret services,” he said.

Human Debeyat, governor of the surrounding Quneitra region, said Russian negotiators had played a key role in convincing more moderate rebel factions in the area to give up their weapons.

He claimed that 70,000 residents had returned to the region thanks to Russian safety guarantees.

Russia has threatened to ban sales of a key rocket engine to the United States in response to new sanctions over the Skripal poisoning. 

Sergei Ryabukhin, head of the budget committee in the upper house of parliament, called the measures announced by the state department late on Wednesday the “most obnoxious and cynical behaviour on the market” and said Russia has the means to respond if leader Vladimir Putin wishes to do so.

“The United States needs to finally understand that it’s useless to fight with Russia, including with the help of sanctions,” he said.

He said Russia could in particular stop exports to the United States of the RD-180 rocket engine, which powers the first stage of the Atlas 5 rocket made by Boeing and Lockheed Martin. 

Lawmakers in Washington had to partially roll back a 2014 ban on Russian engines in military and spy satellite launches due to US reliance on the RD-180.

Since its introduction in 2002, the Atlas 5 has carried the top-secret X-37B space plane, the New Horizons probe that flew by Pluto and the Curiosity rover that has been exploring the surface of Mars.

It is slated to take astronauts to the International Space Station in its first manned flight in 2019 following several delays.

The Russian state-owned producer of the RD-180 said late last month it had signed a contract to deliver six more engines to the United States through 2020. 

The new US sanctions will come into effect later this month and are designed to prevent Russian state companies from obtaining access to weapons, financial assistance or technologies related to US national security.

US officials have said they will cause hundreds of millions of dollars in losses and target electronic devices and engines, among other technologies.

They said a second round of even harsher sanctions would follow if Russia does not promise to stop targeting its citizens with chemical weapons, a pledge that Moscow is highly unlikely to make. 

Mr Putin’s spokesman said the sanctions were “absolutely illegal” and called it “categorically unacceptable” to link them to the Salisbury poisoning in March. He said Britain was ignoring Russia’s calls for a joint investigation.

“Once again we deny in the strongest terms the accusations about the possible connection of the Russian state to what happened in Salisbury,” the spokesman said. “This is out of the question. Russia did not and does not have, and could not have, any connection to the use of chemical weapons.”

A Russian representative to the United Nations, Dmitry Polyansky, called the sanctions a “theatre of the absurd,” arguing that Washington had skipped gathering evidence to “blame everything on Russia, no matter how absurd and fake it is”.

The stock price of Russian state airline Aeroflot fell by 12 per cent on Thursday morning before regaining almost all of its losses. American media had reported the second round of sanctions could include a ban on Aeroflot flights to US destinations, but the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia and Russian officials dismissed this as unlikely. 

The rouble has lost four per cent against the dollar since Wednesday.

After Salisbury, how ready is the UK? | The rise of biological and chemical weapons

Moscow previously planned to cut off US sales of the RD-180 as part of legislation drafted in response to US sanctions in May over Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

The legislation, which would have also banned US software, medicine, tobacco and alcohol, was put on hold as Mr Putin geared up for a summit with Donald Trump in Helsinki in July.

For now, the Atlas 5 still lacks an alternative to the Russian engine, but independent defence analyst Pavel Felgenhauer told the Telegraph that the United States has stockpiled enough RD-180s to continue launches for a few more years.

A ban on the engine’s export “will hurt more the Russians who were planning to build some more of those engines,” he said. 

“The space industry doesn’t want (the ban) to happen but (members of parliament) from time to time are talking about it,” he added.

A British government spokesman praised the “strong international response to the use of a chemical weapon on the streets of Salisbury,” saying it “sends an unequivocal message to Russia that its provocative, reckless behaviour will not go unchallenged”.

Twin Northern California blazes fuelled by dry vegetation and hot, windy weather grew to become the largest wildfire in state history, becoming the norm as climate change makes the fire season longer and more severe.

The two fires burning a few miles apart and known as the Mendocino Complex are being treated as one incident.

It has scorched 443 square miles

The fires, north of San Francisco, have burned 75 homes and is only 30 percent contained.

Video block text

 

Palestinian teenager Ahed Tamimi was released from prison Sunday after serving eight months for slapping two Israeli soldiers, an episode captured on video that made her a symbol of resistance for Palestinians.

Tamimi, 17, and her mother Nariman arrived in their village of Nabi Saleh in the occupied West Bank, where they were met by crowds of supporters and journalists

"The resistance continues until the fall of the occupation, and of course the (female) prisoners in jail are all strong," Ahed Tamimi said, her voice barely audible above the crowd.

"I thank everyone who supported me in this sentence and supports all the prisoners."

Her father Bassem put his arms around Ahed and her mother as they walked together along the road, the crowd chanting "we want to live in freedom".

Tamimi later visited the tomb of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in Ramallah and laid flowers there, before meeting Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.

Abbas "praised Ahed and described her as a model of the Palestinian struggle for freedom, independence and statehood," according to a statement on official news agency WAFA.

"He stressed that non-violent resistance which Ahed embodies has proven to be an ideal and vital weapon in facing the repression of the Israeli occupation."

Israeli authorities appeared keen to avoid media coverage of the release as much as possible, and conflicting information had meant supporters and journalists scrambled to arrive on time at the correct location.

Tamimi and her mother had been driven early on Sunday from Israel’s Sharon prison into the occupied West Bank, authorities said.

But the location of the checkpoint where they were to cross into the territory was changed three times before it was finally announced they were being taken to a crossing at Rantis, about an hour’s drive from the initial location.

Both Tamimi and her mother were sentenced to eight months in an Israeli military court following a plea deal over the December incident, which the family said took place in their garden in Nabi Saleh.

They were released some three weeks early, a common practice by Israeli authorities due to overcrowded prisons, Tamimi’s lawyer Gaby Lasky said.

Video of the December incident went viral, leading Palestinians to view her as a hero standing up to Israel’s occupation.

Tamimi was arrested in the early hours of December 19, four days after the incident in the video. She was 16 at the time.

Her mother Nariman was also arrested, as was her cousin Nour, who was freed in March.

Israel’s military said the soldiers had been in the area on the day of the incident to prevent Palestinians from throwing stones at Israeli motorists.

The video shows the cousins approaching two soldiers and telling them to leave, before shoving, kicking and slapping them.

Ahed Tamimi is the most aggressive of the two in the video.

The heavily armed soldiers do not respond in the face of what appears to be an attempt to provoke rather than seriously harm them. Many Israelis also praised the restraint of the soldiers, who remained calm throughout, though others said her actions merited a tougher response.

The soldiers then move backwards after Nariman Tamimi becomes involved.

The scuffle took place amid clashes and protests against US President Donald Trump’s controversial recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Relatives say that a member of the Tamimi family was wounded in the head by a rubber bullet fired during those protests.

 

Donald Trump has called America’s press "the opposition party" after more  than 300 newspapers coordinated to rebuke his frequent attacks on the  media. 

The US president accused The Boston Globe, which called for the nationwide denouncement, of being "in collusion" with other papers. 

The paper had pledged to write an editorial "on the dangers of the  administration’s assault on the press" on August 16, and asked others to do  the same. 

Some 350 US national and regional newspapers heeded the call, including the  New York Times, the pro-Trump tabloid the New York Post and some local papers in states that Mr Trump won during the 2016 presidential election.

The Globe said it coordinated publication among the newspapers and carried details of it on a database on its website.

Each paper ran an editorial, which is usually an unsigned article that reflects the opinion of an editorial board on a particular subject and is separate from the news and other sections in a paper.

The Globe’s editorial accused Mr Trump of carrying out a "sustained assault on the free press."

Waking up to the simultaneous editorials, the US president used Twitter to  presented himself as at war with the press. "THE FAKE NEWS MEDIA IS THE  OPPOSITION PARTY. It is very bad for our Great Country….BUT WE ARE  WINNING!", he said. 

Mr Trump said The Boston Globe was “in collusion” with other newspapers for  leading the editorial effort.

Fake news | What exactly is it – and how can you spot it?

"The greatness of America is dependent on the role of a free press to speak the truth to the powerful," the Globe’s editorial said. "To label the press ‘the enemy of the people’ is as un-American as it is dangerous to the civic compact we have shared for more than two centuries."

The president’s own campaign team is  currently being investigated for possible collusion with Russia in the 2016  election. 

In a subsequent tweet, Mr Trump said he supported “true FREEDOM OF THE  PRESS” but repeated accusations that most reporters were "fake" or "pushing  a political agenda". 

Mr Trump has frequently criticised journalists and described news reports that contradict his opinion or policy positions as fake news.

In February 2017, for example, he tweeted that "The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American people!"

His comments reflect a view held by many conservatives that most newspapers and other news outlets distort, make up or omit facts because of a bias against them.

The New York Times editorial said it is right to criticise the news media for underplaying or overplaying stories or for getting something wrong in a story.

"News reporters and editors are human, and make mistakes. Correcting them is core to our job," it said. "But insisting that truths you don’t like are ‘fake news’ is dangerous to the lifeblood of democracy. And calling journalists the ‘enemy of the people’ is dangerous, period."

The unified response in editorials across the country on Thursday came after Mr Trump announced he had revoked the security clearance of former  CIA director John Brennan, a vocal critic of the president.

Mr Trump has also said the security clearances of several other former  intelligence officials, including James Clapper, the former Director of  National Intelligence, and ex-FBI Director James Comey are "under review".

All of the individuals have publicly rebuked the president or are people  whom Mr Trump appears to believe are against him.

Democrats have called it an "enemies list," a reference to the Nixon White House, which kept a list of President Richard Nixon’s political opponents  to be targeted with punitive measures.

Former CIA directors and other top national security officials are  typically allowed to keep their clearances so they can be in a position to  advise their successors and to hold certain jobs.

Mr Brennan, who has served three presidents, has accused Mr Trump’s  campaign of colluding with Russia to sway the 2016 election and claims he  is now desperate to end the special counsel’s investigation. 

In an op-ed in The New York Times, the former spy chief wrote: "Trump clearly has become more desperate to protect himself and those close to  him, which is why he made the politically motivated decision to revoke my  security clearance in an attempt to scare into silence others who might  dare to challenge him." 

Mr Trump himself drew a direct connection between the removal of Mr  Brennan’s clearance and the Russia probe, telling The Wall Street Journal  the investigation was a "sham," and "these people led it!" 

It was a swift departure from the official explanation given by the White  House on Wednesday, which cited "the risks" posed by what it termed Mr  Brennan’s "erratic conduct and behaviour". 

Later in the day the retired US Navy admiral who oversaw the raid that killed Osama bin Laden asked Mr Trump to revoke his security clearance.

William McRaven, writing in the Washington Post, said he would "consider it an honour" to "add my name to the list of men and women who have spoken up against your presidency".

He accused Mr Trump of "McCarthy-era tactics" and claimed the president had "embarrassed us in the eyes of our children, humiliated us on the world stage and, worst of all, divided us as a nation".

One of America’s largest "megachurches" has been rocked by a sex scandal which has seen its entire senior leadership team quit.

Willow Creek Church’s founder, Bill Hybels, was accused of sexual misconduct several years ago but was privately cleared of wrongdoing by the church elders.

He was forced to step down earlier this year when the historical allegations became public.

Mr Hybels has denied any wrongdoing but said he had become a distraction from the church.

Since then, more women have come forward to claim they were harassed by the church founder.  

The new revelations over the weekend led the church’s leaders to admit they had failed to handle the claims appropriately.

In a statement, the church elders announced they would all be standing down, saying a "new start" was needed.

“We trusted Bill, and this clouded our judgment,” one elder, Missy Rasmussen, told the congregation.

Church leaders did not move quickly enough to secure Mr Hybels’ electronic devices, she said. 

Ms Rasmussen said the church elders had "no reason not to believe" the ten women who have accused the church founder of sexual misconduct.

Willow Creek is thought to be the fifth largest "megachurch" in the US with more than 25,000 members and locations across Chicago. 

"Megachurches" are defined as congregations with at least 2,000 people in regular weekly attendance.

The allegations against Mr Hybels by a string of women date back to the 1990s but only became public when The Chicago Tribune and Christianity Today broke the story earlier this year.

The papers detailed claims of unwanted advances and suggestive comments to church members.  The church’s leaders were reportedly told four years ago that Mr Hybels was having an affair with one woman and was accused of harassment by others.

An internal investigation cleared him of wrongdoing.

But in April, after the allegations came to light, Mr Hybels announced he would step down months ahead of his planned retirement in October. His announcement brought gasps from his congregation.

New allegations emerged in recent days, with Mr Hybels’ former assistant alleging he groped her repeatedly.

The church’s entire leadership have now quit over the church’s handling of the misconduct allegations.

In their statement, church elders said investigations had been "flawed" and that their trust in Willow Creek’s founder had "clouded our judgement".

"We, as a board, know Willow needs and deserves a fresh start, and the entire board will step down to create room for a new board," it said.

The church’s lead pastor, Heather Larson. who also stepped down, said trust in the church’s leadership had been broken and urgently needed to "move in a better direction".

The megachurch had been due to host a summit of hundreds of churches, but dozens have pulled out since the announcement on Wednesday.

Willow Creek’s new lead pastor, Steve Gillen, has pledged to commission an independent review of the church’s leadership.