The Ukrainian military said on Wednesday that it had struck a major Russian gunpowder plant in the western Tambov region overnight, causing a fire at the site.

The Ukrainian military character­ised the plant as one of the main fa­cilities in Russia’s military industrial complex. “It produces gunpowder for various types of small arms, artillery and rocket systems,” it said in a statement on Telegram.

Tambov regional Governor, Yevgeny Pervyshov, said early on Wednesday that Russian defences had repelled a “massive attack” by Ukrainian drones on the town of Kotovsk, which independent Rus­sian media identified as the site of a gunpowder plant.

He said one downed drone had caused a fire but no casualties, and the situation was under control.

Pervyshov also told people not to film and publish images of air defence operations and attempted attacks, as this would provide “di­rect assistance to the enemy.”

The Tambov gunpowder plant produces propellant powders used in charges for ammunition for 122 mm and 152 mm howitzers, ac­cording to a report from the Royal United Services Institute and the Open Source Centre.

The Ukrainian military also said that it recorded explosions at an ammunition depot in Russia’s Kursk region and an airfield depot in Rus­sia’s Voronezh region.

—Reuters

 A split U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday blocked a bid led by two Catholic dioceses to establish in Oklahoma the nation’s first taxpayer-funded religious charter school in a major case involv­ing religious rights in American education.

With conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett recusing herself from the case, the 4-4 ruling left intact a lower court’s decision that blocked the establishment of St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School. Oklahoma’s top court found that the proposed school would violate the U.S. Constitu­tion’s First Amendment limits on government involvement in religion.

Barrett’s decision not to partic­ipate in the case left eight justices rather than the full slate of nine to decide the outcome. Barrett did not publicly explain her recusal but she is a former professor at Notre Dame Law School, which rep­resents the school’s organisers.

When the Supreme Court is evenly divided, the lower court’s decision stands. The justices did not provide a rationale for their action in the unsigned ruling.

Set up as alternatives to tra­ditional public schools, charter schools typically operate under private management and often feature small class sizes, innovative teaching styles or a particular aca­demic focus. Charter schools are considered public schools under Oklahoma law and draw funding from the state government.

The Supreme Court has a 6-3 conservative majority. Barrett’s absence was key to the outcome in the case. The issue of the establish­ment of a religious charter school could return to the Supreme Court in the future to be heard before all its members.

The Supreme Court has rec­ognised broader religious rights in a series of rulings in recent years.

During April 30 arguments in the St. Isidore case, divisions between the three liberal justices and the conservative justices who participated were laid bare as they explored the tensions between the first amendment’s two religion clauses.

Its “establishment clause” restricts government officials from establishing or endorsing any particular religion or promoting religion over non religion. Its “free exercise” clause protects the right to practice one’s religion freely, without government interference.

On balance, the five conserva­tive justices who heard the case signaled sympathy during the arguments toward the proposed St. Isidore school, though Chief Justice John Roberts struck a note of ambivalence, posing tough questions to lawyers on both sides of the dispute.

—Reuters

 A house in the Brussels mu­nicipality of Anderlecht was shot at in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

The shooting occurred at 1:40 a.m. on the facade of a building, com­posed of a professional room and a dwelling, near Place Lemmens in Anderlecht, the Brussels Public Pros­ecutor’s Office has now confirmed.

Initial reports suggested that the shooting took place on the corner Place Clemenceau, but the scene was later confirmed to be about a ten minutes’ walk away.

The Brussels Public Prosecutor also confirmed that 23 bullet holes and two failed molotov cocktails had been found at the scene. Initial unconfirmed reports suggested 15 shots and one molotov cocktail had been found.

It is not yet known whether there is a link with the shootings that took place in the past few days on Saint-Guidon Square, or with pre­vious shootings at the Clemenceau metro station and in the Peterbos neighbourhood in Anderlecht.

Since the beginning of February, those shootings, linked to the drug environment, have already left two dead and three wounded.