The Art of Kissing: Vatican’s next doctrinal guardian defends book on healing powers of lips
An article published earlier this month on Catholic news agency Zenit said that “everyone is talking about Monsignor Víctor Manuel Fernández … and above all about his kisses.” Criticism of the archbishop, whose appointment was seen by some as an attempt to break with the past, has come from conservative religious figures in the United States.
How Hollywood twin strikes have hit radio, TV schedules in US as actors and scripters keep off screen
The flow of films to theatres is protected from an immediate hit because movies take two to three years to produce. But future releases, such as Marvel’s “Blade” and “Thunderbolts,” have been delayed and more are expected to be put on hold until the labour conflicts are resolved. Promotional events for forthcoming movies still to be released will be cancelled
US film industry faces worst strike in 63 years after Hollywood actors joined writers on picket lines
The walkout by SAG-AFTRA, which represents actors from bit-part players to Hollywood’s biggest movie stars, will effectively shutter the studios’ remaining US-based productions of film and scripted television. It will also hamper many overseas shoots involving SAG-AFTRA talent, such as Paramount Pictures’ sequel to “Gladiator,” which director Ridley Scott has been shooting in Morocco and Malta.
People’s diva’ Aretha Franklin’s sons battle over handwritten wills five years after her death
The dispute is pitting a son against other sons. Ted White II believes papers dated in 2010 should mainly control the estate, while Kecalf Franklin and Edward Franklin favour a 2014 document. Both were discovered in Franklin’s suburban Detroit home, months after her death from pancreatic cancer in 2018 at age 76.
Pope Francis’s footprint on Church stronger as he declares he’ll elevate 12 churchmen to cardinals
Whether Pope Francis will name even more cardinals depends on how long he lives. Francis spent nine days in hospital after surgery for an abdominal hernia last month. His recovery is going well and he is due to visit Portugal from August 2-4 and Mongolia from August 31 to September 4.
Pope prays for family of ‘Vatican girl’ who vanished 40 years ago, a gangster alleged was brought into the Vatican to be molested
Theories about Orlandi’s disappearance have run the gamut from speculation it was linked to a plot to kill Pope John Paul II, to suggestions that she was kidnapped by the Rome underworld, to accusations she was the victim of a priestly paedophile group.
Uganda: Once the Pearl of Africa, it’s now the altar on which politics smothers environmental democracy
Unfortunately, over most of Africa, what I have so far written is obtaining. Some rulers stick to power and rule from abroad, but when elections are held, they win by over 90 per cent of the vote even when they do not interact with the citizens. A good example is President Paul Biya of Cameroon, one of the longest ruling leaders in modern Africa.
US President Biden looks to boost reelection numbers by signing order that grants right to abortion
Biden’s executive order aims to strengthen access to contraception, a growing concern for Democrats after some conservatives have signalled a willingness to push beyond abortion into regulation of contraception. In 2017, nearly 65 perc cent or 46.9 million of the 72.2 million girls and women age 15 to 49 in the US used a form of contraception.
Clinging on guns: How children in a Chicago Black neighbourhood help swap guns for global citizenship
The Black blood drawn in these Northern non-Jim Crow states gave a region pretending not to be complicit in Southern white supremacy a bad look. So instead of continuing to use the Southern style of physical violence to put blacks in their place, government, and private real estate stakeholders used policy and private practices to sully black mobility. The North Lawndale community served as a case study for these actions.
Environment: Why it’s critical to align African politics and economic growth with cultural, moral, spiritual, ecological probity
Development is wholesome when the various dimensions of environmental development are given equal weight and integrated to achieve integrated environmental development. It is an abuse of environmental development if one aspect – in this case economic development – is pursued at the expense of the other types of development.
