Shrinking Europe meets rising right-wing politics
Europe is entering a period of long-term population decline just as right-wing parties push to restrict migration. A widening gap now separates Europe...
Pope Francis announced that starting next week, his weekly teachings at the Vatican will be translated into Mandarin, adding to the languages already used. This move coincides with the start of Advent and reflects efforts to improve Vatican-China relations.
Pope Francis announced on Wednesday that his weekly general audience teachings at the Vatican will also be translated into Mandarin starting next week.
At the Wednesday audiences, Pope Francis delivers his teachings in Italian, which are then translated and read out in English, French, German, Polish, Spanish, Portuguese, and Arabic.
"Next week, with the Advent (period starting), the Chinese translation will also be here in the audience," he said, likely referring to Mandarin, the official language of China. Relations between the Vatican and communist China have historically been strained, but Pope Francis has prioritised improving them.
In October, the Vatican and China extended an agreement regarding the appointment of Catholic bishops in the North Asian country for another four years, reflecting a new level of trust between the two parties.
The Vatican stated that the accord, initially established in 2018, addressed a decades-long division between an underground church loyal to the pope and the China-supervised Catholic Patriotic Association, which operates independently of the Holy See. It is estimated that there are 10 to 12 million Catholics in China.
The 2026 FIFA World Cup draw is taking place at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., with world leaders, sports stars, and FIFA officials on hand to determine matchups for next summer’s expanded 48-team tournament.
Faced with mounting public outrage following one of the deadliest environmental disasters in the nation’s recent history, the Indonesian government has pledged to investigate and potentially shut down mining operations found to have contributed to the catastrophic flooding on Sumatra.
Israel was cleared on Thursday to participate in the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest, a decision made by the organisers, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which sparked a major controversy.
Britain’s King Charles III welcomed German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Wednesday, marking the beginning of his three-day state visit to the United Kingdom. The visit, the first by a German President to the UK in 27 years, comes as the two countries continue to strengthen ties post-Brexit.
Ukraine has rejected Russian claims that its forces have captured the city of Pokrovsk in eastern Donetsk, stating that Ukrainian troops continue to hold the northern districts along a railway line.
Europe is entering a period of long-term population decline just as right-wing parties push to restrict migration. A widening gap now separates Europe’s demographic needs from its political choices.
French naval forces opened fire on a swarm of unidentified drones that flew over one of the country’s most sensitive military installations, the Île Longue submarine base in western Brittany, officials confirmed on Friday.
The 2026 FIFA World Cup draw is taking place at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., with world leaders, sports stars, and FIFA officials on hand to determine matchups for next summer’s expanded 48-team tournament.
Thousands of students across Germany walked out of classrooms on Friday to protest a newly approved military service law.
Norway plans to buy two additional submarines from Germany and a separate procurement of long-range artillery, the defence ministry said on Friday, at a much higher cost than before partly due to high demand for military equipment.
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