Author: staff

Inah Canabarro Lucas, a Brazilian nun recognised as the world’s oldest person, has died at the age of 116.The Congregation of Teresian Sisters of Brazil announced her death in a statement, praising her life of “dedication and devotion.” Born on 8 June 1908, she became the world’s oldest person earlier this year following the death of Japanese woman Tomiko Itooka, who also died aged 116. On her 110th birthday, Lucas received a special blessing from Pope Francis, who died last week aged 88.When asked about the secret to her longevity, she attributed it to God: “He is the secret of life. He…

After years of simmering disputes under former Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Macron and Merz were keen to present a refreshed, engaged and well-choreographed partnership spearheaded by two like-minded leaders eager to get down to business. Macron hailed “a new page in the Franco-German friendship” while Merz said he already shared “a deep personal bond” with the French president. The two leaders appeared relatively aligned on how to support Ukraine. Merz said he wanted Germany to offer Kyiv security guarantees if talks between Russia and Washington led to a ceasefire, something that both France and the U.K. have been actively pushing for,…

Legendary filmmaker Martin Scorsese is producing a documentary about the late Pope Francis, featuring his last on-camera interview. The pontiff, who became pope in 2013 after his predecessor Benedict XVI resigned, died on 21 April aged 88.  Scorsese met numerous times with Pope Francis over the years, and their conversations sometimes informed work undertaken by the 82-year-old filmmaker of the acclaimed yet polarizing 1988 film The Last Temptation of Christ and his 2016 film Silence, which chronicled the plights of Portuguese Jesuit missionaries in 17th-century Japan.The director shared his thoughts at the time of Pope Francis’ death and said: “The loss for me runs…

Israel in recent days has moved to take control of humanitarian aid deliveries to the coastal enclave where it has been carrying out a devastating war in retaliation for Hamas’ militants Oct. 7, 2023 attack. “This suffering must stop,” De Wever said in a podcast published Wednesday. While acknowledging the conflict’s complexity, De Wever also described Hamas as “the side of darkness.”  Van Peel emphasized that N-VA “has always stood for humanity” despite recent mounting criticism from coalition partners Christian Democratic and Flemish (CD&V) and Flemish social democratic party Vooruit over the party’s silence.  Across Europe, governments have different views on…

The politically-charged situation surrounding Northern Irish rap band Kneecap continues, as British police said today that counterterrorism detectives will investigate comments made about the Middle East and British politics.As reported earlier this week, one of these videos appears to show a band member shouting “Up Hamas, up Hezbollah”, while the other allegedly shows the group calling for the deaths of Conversative MPs.London’s Metropolitan Police force said the videos “were referred to the Counter Terrorism internet Referral Unit for assessment by specialist officers, who have determined there are grounds for further investigation into potential offenses linked to both videos.”“The investigation is now…

Al-Sharaa, a former Al Qaeda member, has received a cautious welcome from the international community after his forces toppled brutal Syrian dictator Bashar Assad late last year. He has vowed to protect minority groups in Syria and to pursue more inclusive policies. But sectarian violence in recent months, including two bloody days in March during which security forces killed hundreds of civilians, has raised fears that al-Sharaa is failing to rein in Syria’s extremist factions. The Syrian leader subsequently vowed to punish those responsible. In Paris al-Sharaa argued that “elements of the former [Assad] regime took advantage of the situation to rekindle…

When torrential rains swept across eastern Spain in 2024, they unleashed one of the most catastrophic floods the Valencia region had seen in living memory. Among the worst-hit areas was the small town of Paiporta, where entire neighbourhoods were submerged, homes were rendered uninhabitable, businesses destroyed, and streets turned into rivers of thick, suffocating mud. But out of the devastation came an extraordinary response. Young people – many still students – arrived in numbers to unflinchingly clear debris, carry water, and comfort strangers.Photographer Raúl Belinchón, who initially came to help a friend whose home had been flooded, found himself unable…

Names of frontrunners —  to be taken with communion-wafer-sized grains of salt — have surfaced. One is Maltese Cardinal Mario Grech, who presided over the so-called synods, consultative bodies intended to give more power in daily church decision-making to laypeople, women and small peripheral churches. Another is Cardinal Robert Prevost, an American who served in both Latin America and Rome, and is considered a potential bridge-builder between opposing factions. Earlier this week Prevost gave a speech calling for more participation in the selection of bishops, who are normally chosen by the pope, from local bishops’ conferences, a key demand of…

A 15-year-old autistic Nigerian has set the Guinness World Record for the world’s largest art canvas to raise awareness for autism.Kanyeyachukwu Tagbo-Okeke’s painting, which features a multi-coloured ribbon – the autism symbol – surrounded by emojis, spans 12,304 square meters.It is aimed at highlighting the spectrum disorder and the challenges that people like him face amid stigma – like the highly controversial comments made by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.The US Secretary of Health and Human Services recently declared autism an “epidemic”, while stating that many autistic people will “never pay taxes, they’ll never hold a job, they’ll never play baseball, they’ll never write…

Seinen ersten Arbeitstag verbringt Friedrich Merz mit Reisen. Erst ist er in Paris, dann in Warschau. Gordon Repinski begleitet den neuen Kanzler sowohl in Frankreich als auch in Polen und berichtet aus Paris, wie sich Merz gibt, wo er außenpolitisch erste Akzente setzt und wo sich weiterhin Differenzen zwischen ihm und Emmanuel Macron abzeichnen. Außerdem ist Rasmus Buchsteiner im Studio bei Rixa Fürsen. Er hat nicht nur die diversen Amtsübergaben in den Ministerien beobachtet, sondern auch Neuigkeiten aus den Fraktionen von SPD und Union, die sich ebenfalls neu einstellen. Da herrscht Klarheit bei den Sozialdemokraten, während die Unionsfraktion wohl nochmals…