California church to offer beer during services

Flames surge into the air as firefighters try to contain the Dixie Fire near Milford, California. The wildfire in Northern California has grown to become the largest single wildfire in California state history.

Little is left of abandoned residences at Creekside Mobile Home Park after the Cache fire ripped through the Californian city of Clearlake. Authorities had gone door-to-door urging people to flee the quickly developing blaze, one of several fires ravaging the western state. The last decade has seen a huge rise in the number of wildfires in the west of the United States. Climate change linked to the burning of fossil fuels has made the region dryer and hotter for longer, creating ideal conditions for the blazes to rage.

Olympic athlete and transgender reality TV star Caitlyn Jenner meets with California voters two weeks before the election against incumbent Democrat Gavin Newsom. "I love a good fight", says the Republican candidate who promises to "lower taxes, less regulations, build a pro-business environment".

Protesters have blocked roads in Montenegro as the Serbian Orthodox Church prepares to inaugurate Montenegro's next top cleric. They reportedly threw stones at police, shouting: "This is not Serbia."

Once a star of Silicon Valley, biotech company founder Elizabeth Holmes is facing several counts of fraud. Prosecutors have accused her of "lying and cheating" in opening arguments.

In a Berlin church, the "Classic meets fetish" evening regularly brings together about a hundred members of the queer community, all dressed in leather, to listen to classical music.

Megan Rohrer, 41, has become the first openly transgender bishop with the pronouns "they/he" at the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America.

California's Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom has successfully fended off an attempt to topple him in a recall election. Republicans had tried to unseat him over his policies on immigration, COVID-19 and crime.

This week, the governor of California decisively defeated a Republican campaign to remove him from office. Gavin Newsom easily survived the recall election, leaving dozens of challengers far behind. The victory sends a strong message that California voters are still behind Newsom and the traditional polices of the deeply Democratic state. We take a closer look at the recall mechanism.

A bell is inaugurated at a church in Mosul to the cheers of Iraqi Christians, seven years after the Islamic State group overran the northern city. Dozens of faithful stood by as Father Pios Affas rang the newly installed bell for the first time at the Syriac Christian church of Mar Tuma.

Hundreds of firefighters are battling the Windy Fire to protect several groves of giant sequoias in the United States. The fire has already charred 25,000 acres (10,000 hectares), and a number of separate fires are converging on the California woodland that is home to the huge trees.

The town of Greenville, California was completely burned to the ground almost two months ago when the Dixie Fire tore through the area. Buildings lay in ruins, cars sit scorched and trees stand charred after what the governer called a "climate-induced" wildfire. Climate change amplifies droughts, creating ideal conditions for wildfires to spread out of control and inflict unprecedented material and environmental damage.