Pope Leo XIV has declared that the death penalty is “inadmissible” while his home country, the United States, announces plans to livestream an execution by firing squad.

Marking World Day Against the Death Penalty on Saturday, the pope reiterated the Catholic Church’s teaching on capital punishment, writing on X that it was “inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person”.

“The common good can be safeguarded and the requirements of justice can be met without recourse to capital punishment,” his post said.

“Effective systems of detention have been developed that protect citizens while at the same time do not completely deprive those who are guilty of the possibility of redemption,” added the leader of the Catholic Church.

The American Pope’s comments come days after US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Thursday that the firing squad execution of Nidal Malik Hasan on December 3 will be livestreamed.

Hasan was convicted of killing 13 people and wounding 32 others in a shooting at the Fort Hood military base in 2009.

Pope Leo did not specifically refer to the planned execution, or last month’s botched execution attempt on Christa Pike,  who survived two doses of the lethal injection in Tennessee.

But his post came hours after his top deputy, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, told Vatican News that the plan to livestream Hasan’s execution was “unacceptable”.

It was Leo’s predecessor, Pope Francis, in 2018 who first amended official Catholic teaching to declare capital punishment “inadmissible” in all circumstances.

[Aljazeera]

The latest attack on King Khalid International Airport in Saudi Arabia’s capital has injured several people, according to the country’s Civil Aviation Authority.

Operations at the airport in Riyadh were temporarily suspended after the attack on Saturday afternoon, said the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA). Its statement added that officials were assessing the damage and determining the exact number of injuries.

On Thursday, at least three Saudi citizens, including a pilot, were killed in Houthi attacks at the airport, according to GACA.

Those attacks were launched by Yemen’s Houthi group, which is at war with Riyadh and the Saudi-backed Yemeni government in Aden.

Al Jazeera’s Yousef Mawry, reporting from Yemen on Saturday, said the Houthis have yet to claim responsibility for the latest attack.

But the Iran-backed group has warned aviation companies to avoid using Saudi airspace, saying any aircraft operating there – except over the holy cities of Mecca and Medina – is a target.

Earlier on Saturday, King Khalid airport urged passengers to contact their airlines directly and check their flight status before heading to the airport amid reports of disruptions to air traffic. The airport did not specify the cause of the disruptions in its initial advisory.

Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs also instructed Saudi citizens travelling to the kingdom to contact local embassies if their travel itineraries have been disrupted following the attack.

Following reports of the latest attack, President Donald Trump was asked by reporters outside the White House whether the United States planned to join Saudi strikes on the Houthis.

[Aljazeera]