Pope Leo XIV met Monday with six survivors of clergy sexual abuse in Madrid and vowed to consider their suggestions for how the Catholic Church can improve its response to the crisis, the Vatican said.
Pope Leo XIV said Saturday that sexual abuse within the Catholic Church remains “an open wound” as he arrived in Spain for a seven-day state visit that will include a meeting with abuse victims.
The U.S. military shot down four Iranian drones near the Strait of Hormuz on Friday and later struck Iranian coastal surveillance radar sites in a retaliatory operation, U.S. Central Command said, as tensions escalated between the two countries amid an already fragile ceasefire.
Growing concern over missing children in Kenya has prompted renewed scrutiny of the country’s child protection systems after families, child welfare groups, public figures and authorities cited reports of disappearances, abductions, trafficking and abandonment across the country, according to official data and public statements released this year.
Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan is on a three-day state visit to Russia, where she met with President Vladimir Putin and sought to strengthen trade, investment, and diplomatic ties between the two countries.
North Korea’s production of weapons grade nuclear material has more than doubled in the past five years, leader Kim Jong Un said Wednesday, vowing an “exponential” increase in military nuclear capabilities.
The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Sunday that more than 1,100 suspected Ebola cases were under investigation in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda, alongside 263 confirmed infections and 43 confirmed deaths, according to its director general Jean Kaseya.
China on Monday criticized Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi, accusing him of making “baseless” remarks and “sowing confusion” after he warned about China’s expanding military capabilities and pledged to strengthen Japan’s defense posture.
Lebanese authorities on Thursday condemned Israeli strikes near UNESCO-protected heritage sites in southern Lebanon, including areas in Tyre and Nabatieh, as military operations intensified in the region, officials said.
Health authorities and the World Health Organization are responding to an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo linked to the Bundibugyo virus, a rare Ebola-related virus that has killed more than 200 people, officials said.