In an highly emotional and – for anyone watching – completely humbling encounter in a Charleston courtroom, families of some of the victims of Wednesday’s shooting at the Mother Emanuel church in the city somehow summoned the strength to tell the suspected gunman that they found it in their hearts to forgive him.

This was, truly, what Christianity in practice looks like.

The alleged gunman stood stone-faced as grieving relatives addressed him during his arraignment hearing – the beginning of a lengthy legal process – where he was formally charged with nine counts of murder and one count of possession of a firearm, on which he was held on a $1million bond. ABC News reports:

Felecia Sanders survived the Wednesday night attack by pretending to be dead, but lost her son Tywanza. She also spoke from the judge’s courtroom, where [the suspect’s] image appeared on a television screen.

“We welcomed you Wednesday night in our Bible study with open arms. You have killed some of the most beautifulest people that I know. Every fiber in my body hurts … and I’ll never be the same,” Sanders told [him].

President Obama, meanwhile, in San Francisco on Friday, re-stated what he had said in the aftermath of the shooting about the need for a national conversation on gun control.

“I refuse to act as if this is the new normal. Or to pretend that it is just sufficient to grieve and that any mention of doing anything about it is somehow politicizing the problem.”

As the President pointed out on Thursday, this was the fourteenth time he had addressed a community devastated by a mass shooting incident. Politico reports:

Obama said he knew his comments about the lack of hope for gun control in the current Congress when making his initial comments about shooting at the White House on Thursday were interpreted as resignation. They weren’t, he insisted.

“I am not resigned. I have faith we will eventually do the right thing. I was simply making the point that we have to move public opinion. We have to feel a sense of urgency,” he said.

America, Obama said, is “awash with easily accessible guns.”

Many GOP Presidential hopefuls, meanwhile, were appearing at a ‘Faith and Freedom coalition’ conference in Washington DC. The event comes after several had criticized the Pope earlier in the week for “politicizing faith.”

They offered, according to Real Clear Politics’ Rebecca Berg, “prayers but no action.”

“There’s a sickness in our country. There’s something terribly wrong,” Sen. Rand Paul said Thursday at a conference in Washington, D.C., hosted by the conservative Faith and Freedom Coalition. “But it isn’t going to be fixed by your government.”

That thinking reflects not only his party’s steadfast support for the Second Amendment and its opposition to restrictive gun laws, but also the small-government theme that anchors many of the Republican presidential campaigns and the party at large.

Lauren Kelley at Rolling Stone reviews the gun control stances of candidates on both sides.

One candidate even, breathtakingly, described the shooting as an “accident”.

And of course, there’s this..

Jon Stewart, meanwhile, in a widely-shared segment from Thursday night’s show, spoke for many people left bewildered by the nation’s inability to learn from its past.

(Comedy Central)

Finally, here’s how you can help the families who lost loved ones.

http://twitter.com/emilyrosepelz/status/612040602100891648

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* WORLD * European negotiators are set to work through the weekend after German Chancellor Angela Merkel said there “must be a deal” between Greece and its creditors ahead of Monday’s emergency EU summit. Meanwhile, investors withdrew 1.2billion Euros from Greek banks on Friday alone.

http://twitter.com/benschott/status/612026603099541504

As the first case of MERS was revealed in Thailand – the first outside the South Korean outbreak which has killed 24 people (but where no new cases have been reported for 16 days) – there is concern over risks to the aviation sector, Reuters reports.

(The Nation)

North Korea, meanwhile, announced that it has developed a drug which can cure MERS, Ebola, SARS and Aids. The AP reports

The secretive state did not provide proof, and the claim is likely to provoke widespread skepticism.

The official Korean Central News Agency said scientists developed Kumdang-2 from ginseng grown from fertilizer mixed with rare-earth elements. According to the pro-North Korea website Minjok Tongshin, the drug was originally produced in 1996.

 

In what the San Jose Mercury News calls “the most sobering study of extinction yet”, scientists say animal species are disappearing at an accelerating rate – “portending the sixth mass extinction in the 4.5-billion-year history of the Earth.”

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* POLITICS * Here’s how the House Republicans – probably – saved President Obama’s trade bill, as labor leaders and progressives gear up for next week’s Senate vote.

and here’s what Hillary Clinton thinks of it

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* BUSINESS * Authorities in Brazil arrested the heads of the country’s two largest engineering and construction companies over a scandal involving Brazil’s state-run oil company Petrobras.

There was good news and – possibly – bad news for companies in Ireland on Friday. Banking giant Citigroup is planning to shift the headquarters of its retail banking operation from London to Dublin, according to Reuters.

In another scoop, Reuters also reports that IAG, the parent company of British Airways may face EU regulatory hurdles in its attempt to take 25 per cent of Irish airline Aer Lingus. Reuters says:

The second source said IAG was considering whether to offer concessions. It has until next week to do so. The company is likely to use the time until the deadline to convince regulators that the deal does not pose competition issues and there is no need to offer concessions.

If it does not succeed and still declines to offer concessions, the deal could face a full-scale investigation lasting 90 working days.

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* MEDIA* Twitter is poised to change users’ approach to live coverage of events, with Project Lightning, which The Guardian says will “allow users to follow live events through curated streams of tweets, photos and videos. Those events could be organised events such as the World Cup final or Eurovision, or breaking news events such as natural disasters or terrorist attacks.”

Finally, ahead of Fathers’ Day on Sunday, try this tribute by Brian Stelter to his journalistic mentor David Carr on his loss and the value of a digital record.

My wife doesn’t hoard email the way I do. But she’s glad she held onto the one David sent her when I was on the verge of two big life changes: Marrying her and joining CNN.

Looking back, I couldn’t help but notice this email had no typos or abbreviations. “this next unfolding will be a pleasure to watch, although from a greater distance,” he wrote. “and of all the choices brian has made, you are and will be the most important one.”