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  • Pope Francis attracts more than one million worshippers to DRC Mass | CNN

    Pope Francis attracts more than one million worshippers to DRC Mass | CNN

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    Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo
    CNN
     — 

    More than one million people attended Pope Francis’ Mass in Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Wednesday, the Vatican Press Office said, citing figures estimated by local authorities.

    Francis’ trip to the DRC – the first papal visit since 1985 – comes at a time the African nation is beset by armed fighting and a worsening refugee crisis.

    It is part of a six-day trip in the DRC and South Sudan – two countries where Catholics comprise about half of the population and the Church is a key stakeholder in health and education systems as well as in democracy-building efforts. Both countries have abundant natural resources, but are grappling with poverty and strife.

    Pope Francis celebrates a holy Mass at N'Dolo Airport in Kinshasa in the DRC on Wednesday.

    A CNN team on the ground witnessed crowds singing and dancing at N’Dolo Airport from the early hours of the morning, waiting for their first glimpse of the Pope, who toured the air field in an open Popemobile.

    Francis spoke to attendees in his homily about peace and directly challenged those who wield weapons.

    “May it be the right time for you, who in this country call yourself a Christian but commit violence,” Francis said. “To you the Lord says, ‘Put down your arms and embrace mercy.’”

    “We Christians are called to cooperate with everyone, to break the cycle of violence, to dismantle the machinations of hatred,” the Pope said.

    Francis said the population was suffering from “wounds that ache, continually infected by hatred and violence, while the medicine of justice and the balm of hope never seem to arrive,” according to Reuters.

    Decades of militia violence have taken grip of the DRC, as state forces struggle to curb rebel groups. Conflict between government troops and the M23 rebel group, which seeks control of the country from its stronghold in eastern DRC, has left many dead and displaced thousands.

    According to the UN World Food Programme, 26 million people in the DRC face severe hunger.

    Francis met with victims of violence from the east during his visit, and said he was “left without words” after hearing their harrowing stories.

    “We can only weep in silence,” the Pope said, as he thanked the victims for their courageous testimony.

    He is scheduled to leave Kinshasa Friday for South Sudan’s capital, Juba, where he will be joined by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, and the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, Iain Greenshields.

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  • First on CNN: Biden administration to strengthen Obamacare contraceptive mandate in proposed rule | CNN Politics

    First on CNN: Biden administration to strengthen Obamacare contraceptive mandate in proposed rule | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    The Biden administration wants to make it easier for women to access birth control at no cost under the Affordable Care Act, reversing Trump-era rules that weakened the law’s contraceptive mandate for employer-provided health insurance plans.

    The proposed rule, unveiled Monday by the departments of Health and Human Services, Labor and Treasury, would remove an exemption to the mandate that allows employers to opt out for moral convictions. It would also create an independent pathway for individuals enrolled in plans offered by employers with religious exemptions to access contraceptive services through a willing provider without charge.

    The proposed rule would leave in place the existing religious exemption for employers with objections, as well as the optional accommodation for contraceptive coverage.

    The administration crafted the proposed rule keeping in mind the concerns of employers with religious objections and the contraceptive needs of their workers, a senior HHS official told CNN.

    “We had to really think through how to do this in the right way to satisfy both sides, but we think we found that way,” the official said, stressing that there should be no effect on religiously affiliated employers.

    Students at religiously affiliated colleges would have access to the expanded accommodation, just like workers in group health plans where the employer has claimed the exemption.

    Now that the proposed rule has been announced, the public will have the opportunity to comment during the next few months. Officials expect there to be many thousands of public comments, and it will be “many months” before the rule could be finalized.

    HHS expects the proposal would affect more than 100 employers and 125,000 workers, mainly through providing the proposed independent pathway for employees to receive no-cost contraception.

    Women using that pathway would obtain their birth control from a participating provider, who would be reimbursed by an insurer on the Affordable Care Act exchanges. The insurer, in turn, would receive a credit on the user fee it pays the government.

    “If this rule is finalized, individuals who have health plans that would otherwise be subject to the ACA preventive services requirements but have not covered contraceptive services because of a moral or religious objection, and for which the sponsoring employer or college or university has not elected the optional accommodation, would now have access,” Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure said in a news release.

    How many people benefit, however, would depend on whether women and their health care providers know the independent pathway exists and whether providers and insurers are willing to set it up.

    “We’ll just have to see how widely that information is spread and in what way to providers and individuals,” said Laurie Sobel, associate director for Women’s Health Policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation, noting that the proposed rule would not require data collection to show the pathway’s takeup.

    But the Planned Parenthood Federation of America cheered the initiative.

    “Employers and universities should not be able to dictate personal health care decisions and impose their views on their employees or students,” said Alexis McGill Johnson, the group’s CEO. “The ACA mandates that health insurance plans cover all forms of birth control without out-of-pocket costs. Now, more than ever, we must protect this fundamental freedom.”

    The requirement to provide no-cost contraception is not in the Affordable Care Act itself. Instead, HHS under former President Barack Obama included it as one of the women’s preventive services that all private insurance plans must offer without charge.

    The mandate was controversial from the start, sparking lawsuits from religiously affiliated employers and closely held companies that said it violated their beliefs. Exemptions and accommodations have been available for such employers.

    The Trump administration, however, weakened the mandate. Under the rules issued in 2018, entities that have “sincerely held religious beliefs” against providing contraceptives are not required to do so. That provision also extends to organizations and small businesses that have objections “on the basis of moral conviction which is not based in any particular religious belief.”

    The rules also include an optional accommodation that lets objecting employers and private universities remove themselves from providing birth control coverage while still allowing their workers and dependents access to contraception. But the employer or university has to voluntarily elect the accommodation, which risks leaving many without access.

    The Trump administration changes were temporarily blocked after a Pennsylvania district court judge issued a nationwide injunction in 2019. But the following year, the Supreme Court ruled that the administration could expand exemptions for employers who have religious or moral objections to covering contraception.

    At the time, the National Women’s Law Center estimated that the ruling would impact about 64.3 million women in the United States with insurance coverage that included birth control and other preventive services without out-of-pocket costs.

    Employers are not required to notify HHS if they have a moral objection. The agency estimates about 18 employers have claimed that exemption and around 15 employees are affected.

    Still, if the rule is finalized, senior HHS officials say it is “plausible” there could be potential lawsuits brought by religiously affiliated employers – similar to what has been seen in the past.

    “There’s no new obligation on them to participate in any sort of process. This is simply an additional channel for employees in those employer health plans to receive access to contraceptive services,” another senior HHS official said.

    The contraceptive mandate has taken on increased importance now that the Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade, allowing many states to impose severe restrictions on abortion access.

    The Biden administration in turn has focused on continuing access to birth control at no cost. The Health, Labor and Treasury department secretaries last year met with health insurers and issued guidance underscoring Obamacare’s contraceptive coverage requirements for private insurance under the Affordable Care Act.

    “Now more than ever, access to and coverage of birth control is critical as the Biden-Harris Administration works to help ensure women everywhere can get the contraception they need, when they need it, and – thanks to the ACA – with no out-of-pocket cost,” HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a news release.

    This story has been updated with additional information.

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  • Pope Francis to visit two fragile African nations | CNN

    Pope Francis to visit two fragile African nations | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Pope Francis starts a trip on Tuesday to two fragile African nations often forgotten by the world, where protracted conflicts have left millions of refugees and displaced people grappling with hunger.

    The Jan. 31-Feb 5 visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and South Sudan, takes the 86-year-old pope to places where Catholics make up about half of the populations and where the Church is a key player in health and education systems as well as in democracy-building efforts.

    The trip was scheduled to take place last July but was postponed because Francis was suffering a flare-up of a chronic knee ailment. He still uses a wheelchair and cane, but his knee has improved significantly.

    Both countries are rich in natural resources – DRC in minerals and South Sudan in oil – but beset with poverty and strife.

    DRC, which is the second-largest country in Africa and has a population of about 90 million, is getting its first visit by a pope since John Paul II travelled there in 1985 when it was known as Zaire.

    Francis had planned to visit the eastern city of Goma but that stop was scrapped following the resurgence of fighting between the army and the M23 rebel group in the area where Italy’s ambassador, his bodyguard and driver were killed in an ambush in 2021.

    Francis will stay in the capital, Kinshasa, but will meet there with victims of violence from the east.

    “Congo is a moral emergency that cannot be ignored,” the Vatican’s ambassador to DRC, Archbishop Ettore Balestrero, told Reuters.

    According to the U.N. World Food Programme, 26 million people in the DRC face severe hunger.

    The country’s 45 million-strong Catholic Church has a long history of promoting democracy and, as the pope arrives, it is gearing up to monitor elections scheduled for December.

    “Our hope for the Congo is that this visit will reinforce the Church’s engagement in support of the electoral process,” said Britain’s ambassador to the Vatican, Christ Trott, who spent many years as a diplomat in Africa.

    DRC is getting its first visit by a pope since John Paul II travelled there in 1985 when it still was known as Zaire.

    The trip takes on an unprecedented nature on Friday when the pope leaves Kinshasa for South Sudan’s capital, Juba.

    That leg is being made with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby and the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, Iain Greenshields.

    “Together, as brothers, we will live an ecumenical journey of peace,” Francis told tens of thousands of people in St. Peter’s Square for his Sunday address.

    The three Churches represent the Christian makeup of the world’s youngest country, which gained independence in 2011 from predominantly Muslim Sudan after decades of conflict and has a population of around 11 million.

    “This will be a historic visit,” Welby said. “After centuries of division, leaders of three different parts of (Christianity) are coming together in an unprecedented way.”

    Two years after independence, conflict erupted when forces loyal to President Salva Kiir clashed with those loyal to Vice President Riek Machar, who is from a different ethnic group. The bloodshed spiralled into a civil war that killed 400,000 people.

    A 2018 deal stopped the worst of the fighting, but parts of the agreement – including the deployment of a re-unified national army – have not yet been implemented.

    There are 2.2 million internally displaced people in South Sudan and another 2.3 million have fled the country as refugees, according to the United Nations, which has praised the Catholic Church as a “powerful and active force in building peace and reconciliation in conflict-torn regions”.

    In one of the most remarkable gestures since his papacy began in 2013, Francis knelt to kiss the feet of South Sudan’s previously warring leaders during a retreat at the Vatican in April 2019, urging them not to return to civil war.

    Trott, a former ambassador in South Sudan, said he hoped the three Churchmen can convince political leaders to “fulfil the promise of the independence movement”.

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  • This prominent pastor says Christian nationalism is ‘a form of heresy’ | CNN

    This prominent pastor says Christian nationalism is ‘a form of heresy’ | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Left vs. right. Woke vs. the unwoke. Red State Jesus vs. Blue State Jesus.

    There are some leaders who see faith and politics strictly as an either/or competition: You win by turning out your side and crushing the opposition.

    But the Rev. William J. Barber II, who has been called “the closest person we have to MLK” in contemporary America, has refined a third mode of activism called “fusion politics.” It creates political coalitions that often transcend the conservative vs. progressive binary.

    Barber, a MacArthur “genius grant” recipient, says a coalition of the “rejected stones” of America—the poor, immigrants, working-class whites, religious minorities, people of color and members of the LGBTQ community can transform the country because they share a common enemy.

    “The same forces demonizing immigrants are also attacking low-wage workers,” the North Carolina pastor said in an interview several years ago. “The same politicians denying living wages are also suppressing the vote; the same people who want less of us to vote are also denying the evidence of the climate crisis and refusing to act now; the same people who are willing to destroy the Earth are willing to deny tens of millions of Americans access to health care.”

    Barber’s fusion politics has helped transform the 59-year-old pastor into one of the country’s most prominent activist and speakers. As co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, he has helped lead one of the nation’s most sustained and visible anti-poverty efforts.

    He electrified the crowd at the 2016 Democratic National Convention with a speech that one commentator called a “drop the mic” moment. And at a time when both political parties have been accused of ignoring the working class, Barber routinely organizes and marches with groups such as fast-food workers and union members.

    “There is a sleeping giant in America,” Barber told CNN. “Poor and low-wealth folks now make up 30% of the electorate in every state and over 40% of the electorate in every state where the margin of victory for the presidency was less than 3%. If you could just get that many poor and low-wealth people to vote, they could fundamentally shift every election in the country.”

    Starting this month, Barber will take his fusion politics to the Ivy League. Yale Divinity School has announced he’ll be the founding director of its new Center for Public Theology and Public Policy. In that role, Barber says he hopes to train a new generation of leaders who will be comfortable “creating a just society both in the academy and in the streets.”

    Though he’s stepping down as pastor of the North Carolina church where he has served for 30 years, Barber says he is not retiring from activism. He remains president of Repairers of the Breach, a nonprofit that promotes moral fusion politics.

    Barber recently spoke to CNN about his faith and activism and why he opposes White Christian nationalism, a movement that insists the US was founded as a Christian nation and seeks to erase the separation of church and state.

    Barber’s answers were edited for brevity and clarity.

    You’ve talked about poverty as a moral issue and said the US cannot tolerate record levels of inequality. But some extreme levels of poverty have always existed in this country. Why is it so urgent to face those problems now, and why should someone who isn’t poor care?

    Doctor King used to say America has a high blood pressure of creeds, but an anemia of deeds. In every generation we’ve had to have a moment to focus on the urgency of the right now. We will never be able to fix our democracy until we fully face these issues. We will constantly ebb and flow out of recessions because inequality hurts us all.

    Joseph Stiglitz (the Nobel Prize-winning economist) talks about this in his book “The Price of Inequality,” and says that it costs us more as a nation for these inequalities to exist than it would for us to fix them.

    Look at how much it costs us to not have a living (minimum) wage. There was a group of Nobel Peace Prize-winning economists two years ago that debunked the notion that paying people a living wage (the federal minimum wage in the US is $7.25 an hour) would hurt business. They said it’s not true.

    Homeless veterans are housed in 30 tents on a sidewalk along busy San Vicente Boulevard outside the Veteran's Administration campus in Los Angeles on April 22, 2021.

    Well, President Roosevelt said that in the 1930s. He said that any corporation that didn’t pay people a living wage didn’t deserve to be an American corporation.

    I don’t think that American society as a democracy can stand much more. We’re moving toward 50% of all Americans being poor and low wealth. It’s unnecessary.

    We say in our founding documents that every politician swears to promote the general welfare of all people. You’re not promoting the general welfare of all people when you can get elected and go to Congress and get free health care but then sit in Congress and block the people who elected you from having the same thing.

    We say equal protection under the law is fundamental. Well, there’s nothing equal about corporations getting all kinds of tax breaks and all kinds of ways to make more and more money, while the average worker makes 300% less than the CEOs.

    WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 06: Supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump pray outside the U.S. Capitol January 06, 2021 in Washington, DC. Congress will hold a joint session today to ratify President-elect Joe Biden's 306-232 Electoral College win over President Donald Trump. A group of Republican senators have said they will reject the Electoral College votes of several states unless Congress appoints a commission to audit the election results. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

    Marjorie Taylor Greene calls herself a ‘nationalist.’ This is what that means

    Some people cite the scripture where Jesus says, “The poor you always have with you” to argue that poverty is inevitable, and that trying to end it is a hopeless cause.

    Every time they say that, they are misquoting Jesus. Because that’s not what Jesus meant or said. He was saying, yeah, the poor are going to be with you always, because he was quoting from Deuteronomy [15:11]. The rest of that scripture says the poor will always be with you because of your greed — I’m paraphrasing it, but that’s the meaning of it. The poor will always be with you is a critique of our unwillingness to address poverty.

    To have this level of inequality existing is a violation of our deepest moral, constitutional and religious values. It’s morally inconsistent, morally indefensible, and economically insane. Why would you not want to lift 55 to 60 million people out of poverty if you could by paying them a basic living wage? Why would you not want that amount of resources coming to people and then coming back into the economy?

    Thousands of people march through through downtown Raleigh, North Carolina, in what organizers describe as a

    I want to ask you about Christian nationalism. What’s wrong with saying God loves America and that the country should be built on Christian values?

    God doesn’t say it. That’s what’s wrong with it. The scriptures says God loves all people and that if a nation is going to embrace Christian values, then we got to know what those values are. And those values certainly aren’t anti-gay, against people who may have had an abortion, pro-tax cut, pro one party and pro-gun. There’s nowhere in the scriptures where you see Jesus lifting that up.

    Jesus said the Gospel is about good news to the poor, healing to the brokenhearted, welcoming all people, caring for the least of these: the immigrant, the hungry, the sick, the imprisoned. Christian nationalism attempts to sanctify oppression and not liberation. It attempts to sanctify lies and not truth. At best, it’s a form of theological malpractice. At worst, it’s a form of heresy.

    When you have some people calling themselves Christian nationalists, you never hear them say, “Jesus said this.” They say, “I’m a Christian, and I say it.” But that’s not good enough. If it doesn’t line up with the founder, then it’s flawed.

    Are you an evangelical?

    I’m very much an evangelical. I tell folks that I’m a conservative, liberal, evangelical Christian. And what that means is I believe in Jesus, not to the exclusion of other faith traditions because my founder said that “I have others who are not of this fold.” I believe that love, truth, mercy, grace and justice are fundamental to a life of faith. And for me to be evangelical means to start where Jesus started.

    The word “evangel” is good news. When Jesus used that phase it was in his first sermon, which was a public policy sermon. He said it in the face of Caesar, where Caesar had hurt and exploited the poor. He said it right in the ghetto of Nazareth, where people said, “nothing good could come out of Nazareth.” He said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me to preach good news” — evangel —”to the poor.” That’s what evangelicalism is to Jesus. That’s the kind of evangelicalism that I embrace.

    You’ve had health challenges over the years. How do you keep going year after year and keep yourself from being burned out?

    I read the Bible one time, specifically looking to see if I could find any person in scripture that God used in a major way that did not have some physical challenge. And I couldn’t find it. That helped me get over any pity party.

    You know, Moses couldn’t talk. Ezekiel had strange post-traumatic syndrome types of emotional issues. Jeremiah was crying all the time from his struggles with depression. Paul had a physical thorn in the flesh. Jesus was acquainted with sorrow.

    Police keep watch as The Rev. William Barber and other activists demonstrate during a rally in support of voting rights legislation in front of the US Supreme Court in Washington on June 23, 2021.

    Then then I looked down through history, and I couldn’t find anybody. Harriet Tubman had epileptic-type fits. Martin Luther King was stabbed before he did the March on Washington and had a breathing disorder after that.

    During covid, I thought deeply about death and mortality. I have some immune deficiencies and challenges. I’ve battled this ankylosing spondylitis for now 40-plus years. At any time, it could shut my body down.

    During covid, as I kept meeting people, I sat down one day and I said, Lord, why am I still here? I’m not better than these people. I know I’ve been around covid. My doctor said to me if I caught covid I probably would not fare well.

    As I was musing one day, it dawned on me. That’s the wrong question. The question is never, why are you still alive? Why are you still breathing? The question is what are you going to do with the breath you have?

    Because at any given moment, the scripture says we’re a step from death. And so I’ve decided that whatever breath I have, it is too precious to waste on hate, on oppression and on being mean to people. It’s only to be used for the cause of justice.

    John Blake is the author of “More Than I Imagined: What a Black Man Discovered About the White Mother He Never Knew.”

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  • Protests in Stockholm, including Koran-burning, draw strong condemnation from Turkey | CNN

    Protests in Stockholm, including Koran-burning, draw strong condemnation from Turkey | CNN

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    Reuters
     — 

    Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said on Saturday that a planned visit by his Swedish counterpart to Ankara has been canceled after Swedish authorities granted permission for protests in Stockholm.

    Protests in Stockholm on Saturday against Turkey and Sweden’s bid to join NATO, including the burning of a copy of the Quran, sharply heightened tensions with Turkey at a time when the Nordic country needs Ankara’s backing to gain entry to the military alliance.

    “We condemn in the strongest possible terms the vile attack on our holy book … Permitting this anti-Islam act, which targets Muslims and insults our sacred values, under the guise of freedom of expression is completely unacceptable,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said.

    Its statement was issued after an anti-immigrant politician from the far-right fringe burned a copy of the Quran near the Turkish Embassy. The Turkish ministry urged Sweden to take necessary actions against the perpetrators and invited all countries to take concrete steps against Islamophobia.

    A separate protest took place in the city supporting Kurds and against Sweden’s bid to join NATO. A group of pro-Turkish demonstrators also held a rally outside the embassy. All three events had police permits.

    Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom said that Islamophobic provocations were appalling.

    “Sweden has a far-reaching freedom of expression, but it does not imply that the Swedish Government, or myself, support the opinions expressed,” Billstrom said on Twitter.

    The Quran-burning was carried out by Rasmus Paludan, leader of Danish far-right political party Hard Line. Paludan, who also has Swedish citizenship, has held a number of demonstrations in the past where he has burned the Quran.

    Paludan could not immediately be reached by email for a comment. In the permit he obtained from police, it says his protest was held against Islam and what it called Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan’s attempt to influence freedom of expression in Sweden.

    Several Arab countries including Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Kuwait denounced the Koran-burning. “Saudi Arabia calls for spreading the values of dialogue, tolerance, and coexistence, and rejects hatred and extremism,” the Saudi Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

    Sweden and Finland applied last year to join NATO following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine but all 30 member states must approve their bids. Turkey has said Sweden in particular must first take a clearer stance against what it sees as terrorists, mainly Kurdish militants and a group it blames for a 2016 coup attempt.

    At the demonstration to protest Sweden’s NATO bid and to show support for Kurds, speakers stood in front of a large red banner reading “We are all PKK”, referring to the Kurdistan Workers Party that is outlawed in Turkey, Sweden, and the United States among other countries, and addressed several hundred pro-Kurdish and left-wing supporters.

    “We will continue our opposition to the Swedish NATO application,” Thomas Pettersson, spokesperson for Alliance Against NATO and one of organizers of the demonstration, told Reuters.

    Police said the situation was calm at all three demonstrations.

    Earlier on Saturday, Turkey said that due to lack of measures to restrict protests, it had canceled a planned visit to Ankara by the Swedish defence minister.

    “At this point, the visit of Swedish Defense Minister Pal Jonson to Turkey on January 27 has become meaningless. So we canceled the visit,” Defence Minister Hulusi Akar said.

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  • Biden delivers sermon drawing on legacy of Rev. Martin Luther King: ‘This is a time of choosing’ | CNN Politics

    Biden delivers sermon drawing on legacy of Rev. Martin Luther King: ‘This is a time of choosing’ | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    Joe Biden delivered remarks Sunday from Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, becoming the first sitting president to deliver a Sunday sermon from the historic church where civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. served as pastor until his assassination in 1968.

    “You’ve been around for 136 years – I know I look like it, but I haven’t,” Biden joked, calling King one of “my only political heroes” since entering public service.

    In remarks from the pulpit, the president referred to the current moment in American history “the time of choosing.”

    “Are we a people who choose democracy over autocracy? You couldn’t ask that question 15 years ago, right? You would’ve thought democracy was settled – not for African Americans, but democracy as an institutional structure was settled. But it’s not, it’s not,” he said.

    “We have to choose a community over chaos. Are we the people … going to choose love over hate? These are the vital questions of our time, and the reason why I’m here as your president, I believe. Dr. King’s life and legacy show us the way, and we should pay attention,” Biden said.

    He offered praise for King and his legacy, noting that the civil rights pioneer “was born in a nation where segregation was a tragic fact of life.”

    Biden’s visit came amid a steady drip of revelations tied to his handling of classified documents after his time as vice president. The White House has faced increasing criticism for its lack of transparency with the public over the finding of classified material at Biden’s home and his former private office. Attorney General Merrick Garland has appointed a special counsel to take over the investigation into the classified documents found at the two locations connected to Biden.

    Biden was invited to speak Sunday by the current pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church, Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock, on what would have been King’s 94th birthday. Warnock was recently elected to a full six-year term following an election in which he distanced himself from Biden on the campaign trail in Georgia, where polling showed a majority of voters disapproved of the president’s job performance.

    At the church, Biden spoke about King’s legacy and a number of issues, including civil and voting rights.

    “He had every reason to believe, as others in his generation did, that history had already been written, that the division be America’s destiny – but he rejected that outcome,” Biden said. “So often, when people hear about Dr. King, people think his ministry and the movement were most about the epic struggle for civil rights and voting rights. But we do well to remember that his mission was something even deeper – it was spiritual. It was moral.”

    The speech also came as the president is set to make a decision about his political future with his advisers readying plans for a possible reelection bid. Biden narrowly flipped Georgia in 2020, buoyed by support from Black voters, and the state could prove critical in next year’s presidential campaign.

    Ahead of Biden’s trip to Georgia, Keisha Lance Bottoms, the White House senior adviser for public engagement, and former mayor of Atlanta, called the visit “an inflection point,” as the president’s voting rights agenda remains stalled in Congress.

    “If you’ve come through the East Wing, you’ve seen the pictures of Dr. King meeting with Lyndon Johnson, meeting with other civil rights leaders, hashing out voting rights in the White House – and so the fact that we are still here talking about this in 2023, I think really speaks to the fact that we need action, we need that action from Congress,” Bottoms said.

    “The President has done and will continue to do all that he can do in his executive powers, but there’s only so much that he can do. We need Congress to act,” she added.

    A Democratic-controlled House passed a voting rights bill in 2021, but attempts by Senate Democrats to change filibuster rules to pass the legislation were unsuccessful amid opposition from moderate Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema. Sinema has since become an independent, while continuing to caucus with Democrats, and Republicans won control of the House following the November midterm elections, further dashing hopes of finding compromise on voting rights.

    Bottoms defended the administration’s handling of the voting rights issue, telling reporters Friday that the Biden White House has “done all that we can do from the executive branch,” but if there were additional steps that would further the issue, “we welcome these suggestions.”

    While in Atlanta, Biden was expected to meet with members of the King family and civil rights organizations, the White House said.

    King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1968 at age 39.

    On Monday, when the nation honors King on his eponymous holiday, Biden will deliver the keynote address during the National Action Network’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Breakfast in Washington, DC, on the invitation of Rev. Al Sharpton.

    This story has been updated.

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  • Former Moscow-linked Church claims religious persecution as security raids heat up | CNN

    Former Moscow-linked Church claims religious persecution as security raids heat up | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    The vertically shot video published last November shows no weapons, battlefield atrocities or even soldiers. But the sound of a patriotic Russian song reverberating through a church on Kyiv’s famous Lavra monastery grounds seemed to open a new front in Ukraine’s war with Russia.

    The church belongs to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) – which, despite the name, has traditionally been loyal to the Russian Orthodox Church, and whose current leader Patriarch Kiril has openly supported Moscow’s brutal invasion. Splitting with Kiril, the leadership of the UOC denounced Russia’s attack, and last May, declared its independence from Russia.

    In a sermon days after the split, Patriarch Kiril said he was praying that “no temporary external obstacles will ever destroy the spiritual unity of our people.”

    Days after the video surfaced, masked members of the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) conducted a raid on the Lavra – officially, to prevent it being used for “hiding sabotage and reconnaissance groups” or “storing weapons.”

    By December, a handful of church leaders had been sanctioned, and dozens more churches across the country were raided by the SBU – though the searches turned up little more than a few Russian passports, symbols and books.

    “There was no mention in the findings of weapons or saboteurs. What they said they found was printed matter, documents, which are not prohibited under Ukrainian law,” UOC Bishop Metropolitan Klyment told CNN in an interview.

    There is plenty of gray area, however. In a statement the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) told CNN that it’s not illegal to store Russian propaganda, but it is to distribute it. “If such literature is in the library of the diocese or on the shelves of a church shop, it is obvious that it is intended for mass distribution,” the statement read.

    It insisted that the raids on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church “are aimed exclusively at national security issues. This is not a matter of religion.” Vladimir Legoyda, a spokesperson for the Russian Orthodox Church, however, slammed the searches as an “act of intimidation.”

    Professor Viktor Yelenskyi, Ukraine’s newly appointed religious freedom watchdog, said that for more than 30 years the UOC leadership has been “poisoning people with the ideas of the Russian world.” He defended the SBU’s raids, comparing them to the crackdown on Islamic extremism after 9/11. “Ukraine is still a safe haven for religious freedom.”

    Yet, at the end of 2022, the government declined to renew the church’s lease on its massive, central Lavra cathedral and turned over the keys to the similarly named, but completely separate Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU). The rival OCU celebrated Orthodox Christmas (on January 7) mass there for the first time this year.

    Speaking outside the church on Christmas Day, Alla, who declined to give her last name, said, “I think it should’ve been done a long time ago.”

    “We’ve been tolerating this [UOC] evil and closing our eyes as we thought we should be tolerant, but the war brought it all to surface.”

    Father Pavlo Mityaev is pictured at the Orthodox Church of Ukraine Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Vita Poshtova, a village just outside Kyiv.

    The Ukrainian Orthodox Church held this year’s Christmas mass at a smaller church down just steps from the cathedral. Kyrylo Serheyev, a student at the lavra seminary, said this year especially, he’s praying for Ukrainian troops. And despite government sanctions and scrutiny of his church, he insists “our patriotism is not becoming less.”

    Viktoria Vinnyk said she was sad not to have mass in the central cathedral this year. Though she speaks Russian, she’s never been to Russia.

    “I hope for better in my country. And I hope that the situation will change,” she said.

    The cathedral isn’t the only holy site to change hands. Outside Kyiv, in the village of Vita Poshtova, a small church has sat perched on a hillside above the frozen lake since the Soviet era. It’s the only one in the village. In September the congregation voted to convert the church from UOC to the independent OCU. Parishioner Olha Mazurets says she was uncomfortable with any connection to Russia.

    “It’s a matter of identity and self-preservation. We must identify our enemy too,” she told CNN.

    The ceiling of the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Vita Poshtova in Ukraine.

    Father Pavlo Mityaev, the newly appointed priest says before war, “people didn’t pay attention to whether it was a Ukrainian or Russian-speaking church, they were coming to God. But when the war started, everything changed.”

    According to Klyment, up to 400 of the UOC’s 12,000 churches in Ukraine have converted to the OCU since the war began.

    The security services says that since the full-scale invasion began, 19 church clergy have been charged and five have been convicted.

    In December, UOC priest Andriy Pavlenko was sentenced to 12 years for passing information about Ukrainian battlefield positions in the Donbas to the Russians. A week later, he was sent to Russia as part of a prisoner exchange.

    Klyment acknowledges that priest’s guilt but dismisses other cases – like the Vinnytsia priest indicted just this week for disseminating pro-Russian propaganda – as hollow accusations. He thinks the wider church is being unfairly tarnished.

    “Members of the Ukrainian Orthodox … are citizens of Ukraine, and sometimes among the best citizens of Ukraine, proving their patriotism with their own lives,” he said referring to UOC members fighting on the front lines.

    In his nightly address on December 1, President Volodymyr Zelensky indicated he was prepared to go beyond raids – proposing a law to ban churches with “centers of influence” in Russia from operating in Ukraine – all in the name of “spiritual independence.”

    “We will never allow anyone to build an empire inside the Ukrainian soul,” he said.

    But Klyment believes that law would merely push his church underground.

    “What else do you call persecution if not this?” he asked.

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  • RNC braces for three-way chair race at winter meeting | CNN Politics

    RNC braces for three-way chair race at winter meeting | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    A three-way race for chairman of the Republican National Committee could deal another setback to a party looking to enter the 2024 cycle with a unified front.

    Each of the three candidates running for chair – incumbent Ronna McDaniel, California-based attorney Harmeet Dhillon and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell – confirmed to CNN either themselves, or through allies, that they have qualified to be on the ballot. It will be the first time in more than a decade that a drawn-out balloting process – set to take place when the committee’s 168-member voting body gathers in Southern California later this month – is likely to occur, said multiple people familiar with the process. A spokesperson for the RNC declined to comment on the status of any candidate qualifications.

    According to an email sent to RNC members last week, candidates running in contested races had until 10 a.m. Friday to qualify for the ballot by submitting “written evidence” demonstrating their majority support from national committee members in at least three states. McDaniel, Dhillon and Lindell will each participate in candidate forums before committee members vote by secret ballot on January 27 to elect their next leader.

    “Yes 3 are in,” Lindell said in a text message Friday when asked if he had submitted his paperwork to qualify for the chairman race. The MyPillow founder, who is a prominent supporter of former President Donald Trump’s election fraud claims, declined to identify which committee members were backing his campaign.

    “I’ve told mine I want to be discreet because I don’t want the media to attack them,” he said.

    A person close to Dhillon also confirmed that the California committeewoman had submitted the necessary paperwork to qualify and plans to have “a full whip operation on the ground” at the winter meeting in two weeks. That operation will include nightly receptions for committee members and a handful of high-profile surrogates, who are flying in for the occasion, including defeated Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and Turning Point USA President Charlie Kirk, this person said.

    “We feel very, very good. As of yesterday, I’ve thought, ‘Good God, there is a very, very clear path to win this thing,’” the person close to Dhillon said.

    “Ronna McDaniel looks forward to participating in the candidate forum at winter meeting,” said Emma Vaughn, a spokesperson for McDaniel’s reelection campaign.

    The contested chair race will occur just weeks after House Republicans began their new majority with a dayslong struggle to elect their own leader following the party’s underwhelming performance in the midterm elections and amid furious objections to Kevin McCarthy – who was eventually elected speaker – by some of the most conservative members of the House GOP Conference. Another protracted leadership election inside the Republican Party’s governing body could deal a second blow to the GOP in its quest for party unity and exacerbate ongoing strategy debates across the party.

    The candidate forums, which have been held in years past, will allow candidates running for chairman and other contested positions – including co-chair and treasurer – to make their case to committee members in a format of their choosing, according to a person familiar with the planning. While each will be allotted the same amount of time, one candidate could choose to spend the duration speaking directly to members about their campaign or to field questions from members the entire time.

    “I don’t think it’s going to be raucous, per se, but I’m sure both of Ronna’s challengers will forcefully argue why she should go and why they should replace her,” said one committee member who plans to support Dhillon.

    Vaughn, the spokeswoman for McDaniel, said the current chairwoman will use the candidate forum “to continue her conversations with members of the 168, our party’s grassroots leaders who are eager to unite together to compete and win in 2023 and 2024.”

    McDaniel has declined to engage in a public debates with Dhillon and Lindell set to be hosted by radio personality John Fredericks and the right-wing outlet Real America’s Voice at the California resort in Dana Point where RNC members will huddle later this month. Vaughn cited the RNC-sanctioned candidate forum as McDaniel’s reason for not wanting to participate, adding that the incumbent chairwoman “will be overseeing party business during the remaining portion of the RNC meeting.”

    Had she agreed to participate in the Fredericks forum, however, it’s unlikely McDaniel would have been given a fair platform. The Virginia-based talk show host has previously called McDaniel, who is running for her fourth term, “a three-time loser” overseeing “the biggest disaster I’ve ever seen.”

    With two weeks left until RNC members huddle in California, the race for chair has taken a heated turn.

    A string of no-confidence votes against McDaniel by various state parties has further emboldened Dhillon and her allies, while some opponents of the California attorney have begun quietly raising questions about her Sikh faith, according to two people familiar with those conversations.

    “We must reject religious bigotry [within] our great party. Attacking Sikh faith of an Asian-American candidate 4 RNC chair has the optics of racism!” Oregon committeeman Solomon Yue, an early Dhillon supporter, wrote on Twitter earlier this week, alongside a screenshot of a text message from a fellow RNC member alleging that they had been approached by “a former RNC employee living in a southern state” trying to circulate a video of Dhillon delivering a Sikh prayer at the 2016 GOP convention in Cleveland.

    Following the allegations, McDaniel, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, issued a statement to NBC News condemning “religious bigotry in any form.”

    “As a member of a minority faith myself, I would never condone such attacks. I have vowed to run a positive campaign and will continue to do so,” she said.

    While more than 100 RNC members signed on to a November letter endorsing McDaniel’s reelection as chair, allies of her opponents claim there have been cracks in her support in the weeks since. Several state executive committees have held no-confidence votes against McDaniel, with another vote set to occur in Florida.

    Both the Alabama and Louisiana Republican parties have approved resolutions or publicly urged RNC members to vote against McDaniel. In Arizona, Republican leaders late last year called on McDaniel to resign, while the Texas GOP executive committee has urged its three RNC committee members to back fresh leadership instead of supporting McDaniel. In Florida, two candidates running for chair of the state GOP party recently signed on to a petition to force a no-confidence vote against McDaniel, the fate of which remains unknown at this time.

    Still, Vaughn claimed in a statement that “member support for the Chairwoman has grown since her announcement” to seek reelection.

    While McDaniel allies continue to tout her early declared support from 100-plus members, it is unclear if that support will hold when committee members vote later this month. Because votes are cast by secret ballot, it is possible some signatories of the pro-McDaniel letter could defect without revealing their identities.

    CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misstated the number of public debates for RNC chair that will be hosted by Real America’s Voice.

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  • Executions aren’t new in Iran, but this time they’re different | CNN

    Executions aren’t new in Iran, but this time they’re different | CNN

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    Editor’s Note: A version of this story appears in today’s Meanwhile in the Middle East newsletter, CNN’s three-times-a-week look inside the region’s biggest stories. Sign up here.


    New York and Amman
    CNN
     — 

    The Islamic Republic of Iran has long ranked among the world’s top executioners. But with the recent death sentences handed down to protesters, critics say the regime has taken capital punishment to a new level.

    Last weekend, Iran executed two more protesters charged with killing security personnel, causing an international outcry. Critics said that the executions were a result of hasty sham trials.

    The regime executed 314 people in 2021, 20% more than the previous year, rights group Amnesty International said in a report from May 2022. Many of those had to do with drug-related crimes.

    This year, a number of protesters are entangled in Iran’s court system, many of whom face a particularly unjust judicial process, according to activists.

    Human rights activists have warned there’s a real risk that many of them could become another number in the growing list of those executed by the Islamic Republic. At least 43 people are currently facing execution in Iran, according to a CNN count, but activist group 1500Tasvir says the number could be as high as 100.

    “Defendants are systematically deprived of access to lawyers of their choice during the trial, are subjected to tortured and coerced confessions and then rushed to the gallows,” Tara Sepehri Far, an Iran researcher at Human Rights Watch, told CNN.

    United Nations human rights chief Volker Türk on Tuesday accused Iran of “weaponizing” criminal procedures, saying it amounts to “state sanctioned killing”

    With this round of protests, critics say, the authorities are using charges that carry the death penalty more liberally than they have before, widening the application of such laws to cover protesters.

    According to Iranian state media, dozens of government agents, from security officials to officers of the basij paramilitary force, have been killed in the protests. Activist groups HRANA and Iran Human Rights say that 481 protesters have been killed.

    Security personnel have died in previous protests as well, Sepehri Far said, “but it is crucial to point out in this (time) round Iranian authorities are using the death penalty way beyond (the) intentional killing of security officers.”

    The regime appears to have capitalized on the executions, using them as a deterrent to people eager to speak out and flood the streets, as was seen after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Jina Amini in the custody of the nation’s morality police.

    “The trials and executions are yet another piece of the repression machine serving to demonstrate power and control and spread fear and publicize (the) government’s narrative about protesters,” Sepehri Far explained.

    Iran has used Islamic Sharia law to prosecute protesters with crimes carrying the death penalty, namely “waging war against God” or “moharebeh” and “corruption on earth,” according to the UN Office of Human Rights.

    The process has been criticized within the country too.

    Mohsen Borhani, a professor at Tehran University and an expert in Islamic jurisprudence, has also challenged the use of such religiously based charges against protesters. In a television debate last month, he argued that the protesters executed were charged with waging war against God when their role in the protests did not in fact merit such a charge.

    The brandishing of weapons by protesters, he said, was meant to intimidate, not injure security personnel. “This is fundamentally out of the realm of moharebeh because the person’s opposition is towards the government, not civilians.”

    Sepehri Far said that Mohsen Shekari, one of the first protesters to be executed, was accused of injuring an officer. “Others have received the death penalty for extremely vague charges such as destruction and arson of public property or using a weapon to spread terror,” she said.

    Activists say Iranian authorities have developed sophisticated methods of spreading disinformation on how, why and when executions will be carried out. Civil rights activist Atena Daemi said in a tweet, for example, that several Iranian news outlets had reported that activists on death row had been released, news that was refuted by the prisoners’ families.

    Activists have said that condemning the protests is not enough. The European Union has taken note, and as the bloc continues to discuss imposing a fourth round of sanctions on Iran, some members have supported moves to classify its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization.

    Saudi Arabia to lift restrictions on pilgrim numbers for 2023 Hajj season

    Saudi Arabia aims to host a pre-pandemic number of Muslim pilgrims for the Hajj in 2023, the Saudi Ministry of Hajj and Umrah said in a tweet on Monday. No age limits will be imposed on Hajj pilgrims this season, which starts on June 26.

    • Background: The kingdom had limited the number of pilgrims to 1,000 in 2020 and in 2021 increased the quota to almost 60,000, but only for residents of Saudi Arabia. In 2022, the kingdom authorized one million Muslims to perform the rites. The holy sites in the cities of Mecca and Medina normally host over 2 million people during the pilgrimage.
    • Why it matters: Performing the Hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam which all able-bodied Muslims are required to perform at least once in their lives. Saudi Arabia has identified the pilgrimage as a key component of a plan to diversify its economy. According to Mastercard’s latest Global Destination Cities Index, Mecca attracted $20 billion in tourist dollars in 2018.

    Egypt commits to IMF to slow projects, increase fuel prices

    Egypt committed to a flexible currency, a greater role for the private sector and a range of monetary and fiscal reforms when it agreed to a $3 billion financial support package with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Reuters reported, citing an IMF staff report released on Tuesday. Among its pledges is one to slow investment in public projects, including national projects, so as to reduce inflation and conserve foreign currency, without specifying where cuts might fall. Egypt also said it would allow most fuel product prices to rise until they were in line with the country’s fuel index mechanism to make up for a slowdown in such increases over the last fiscal year.

    • Background: In a letter of intent to the IMF, Egypt said it sought support after the war in Ukraine increased existing vulnerabilities amid tighter global financial conditions and higher commodity prices. Under the support, the IMF will provide Egypt with about $700 million in the fiscal year that ends in June.
    • Why it matters: Egypt is already suffering from economic hardship and rising inflation that has caused discontent at home. The 2011 revolution was partly triggered by economic matters and the cost of living.

    Saudi Arabia plans to use domestic uranium for nuclear fuel

    Saudi Arabia plans to use domestically-sourced uranium to build up its nuclear power industry, Reuters cited Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman as saying on Wednesday. He added that recent exploration had shown a diverse portfolio of uranium.

    • Background: Saudi Arabia has a nascent nuclear program that it wants to expand to eventually include uranium enrichment, a sensitive area given its role in nuclear weapons. Riyadh has said it wants to use nuclear power to diversify its energy mix.
    • Why it matters: Atomic reactors need uranium enriched to around 5% purity, but the same technology in this process can also be used to enrich the heavy metal to higher, weapons-grade levels. This issue has been at the heart of Western and regional concerns about Iran’s nuclear program. It is unclear where Saudi Arabia’s ambitions end, since Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said in 2018 that the kingdom would develop nuclear weapons if Iran did. The neighboring United Arab Emirates has committed not to enrich uranium itself and not to reprocess spent fuel.

    German exports to Iran rose by 12.7% last year, Reuters reported. Despite a significant deterioration in political ties between the two countries due to Iran’s brutal crackdown on protesters, trade ties remained intact, with the value of trade climbing to $1.6 billion between January and November. Berlin is currently pushing for a fourth package of European Union sanctions on Iran.

    The Gulf nation of Oman become the latest in the small group of countries that are considering a move to a four-day workweek.

    The government has said that it is studying the possibility of expanding weekends to three days instead of two, citing other nations’ success in pilots to test the move.

    Salem bin Muslim Al Busaidi, an undersecretary at the labor ministry, told local media that the nation’s workforce has already increased flexibility, adopting remote work, part-time work and other initiatives to modernize the work environment.

    Several countries have experimented with a four-day work week, including Iceland, Spain and Ireland, and the trials suggest that the move improves productivity.

    Oman’s neighbor, the UAE, has seen some of the most dramatic changes to the country’s work environment. Besides shifting the country’s weekend to Saturday and Sunday instead of Friday and Saturday, the country adopted a four-and-a-half-day workweek in 2022.

    The UAE emirate of Sharjah took that a step further by adopting a four-day work week across all government sectors and allowing private companies to do the same.

    The emirate reported a 40% drop in traffic accidents in the first 8 months, a boost in employee productivity, and a drop in gas emissions due to the decrease in commutes, according to local media.

    The onset of Covid-19 drastically changed the working environment of the Gulf region as companies were forced to adapt to new ways of working under restrictions.

    By Mohammed Abdelbary

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  • Demi Lovato poster banned by advertising regulator for being offensive to Christians | CNN

    Demi Lovato poster banned by advertising regulator for being offensive to Christians | CNN

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    London
    CNN
     — 

    Britain’s advertising regulator has banned a poster promoting Demi Lovato’s most recent album for being “likely to cause serious offence to Christians.”

    The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) launched an investigation into the poster, which was seen at multiple sites across London in August, after receiving complaints from four members of the public.

    The poster featured an image of the album cover under the headline “HOLY FVCK,” which is also the name of the album. The image showed Lovato sprawled across a large cushioned crucifix in a leather bondage-style outfit.

    Under the UK’s code for non-broadcast advertising, ads must be prepared with a “sense of responsibility” and must not contain anything likely to cause serious or widespread offense.

    According to the report published by the ASA Wednesday, the complainants “challenged whether the ad was likely to cause serious or widespread offence,” while some also suggested it was “irresponsibly placed” where children could see it.

    The watchdog investigated and upheld both aspects of the complaints, finding that both the language and the imagery used were likely to cause serious offense.

    Polydor Records, a division of Universal Music Group, argued that the posters, which appeared at six different sites and which were removed after four days, primarily included the artwork from the singer’s album, and denied that they were offensive.

    “We considered that the image of Ms Lovato bound up in a bondage-style outfit whilst lying on a mattress shaped like a crucifix, in a position with her legs bound to one side which was reminiscent of Christ on the cross, together with the reference to ‘holy fvck’, which in that context was likely to be viewed as linking sexuality to the sacred symbol of the crucifix and the crucifixion, was likely to cause serious offence to Christians,” the report said.

    Though misspelt, it would be clear to “most readers that the ad alluded to the expression ‘holy f**k’,” it added.

    The watchdog concluded that the poster breached the code, and ruled that it “must not appear again in the form complained of unless it was suitably targeted.”

    CNN has reached out to Polydor Records for comment.

    Lovato’s eighth studio album, which was released in August, deals with some difficult issues, including drug and alcohol addiction. One of the songs, “Skin of My Teeth,” was inspired by her health challenges following an 2018 overdose, which caused multiple strokes and brain damage. She said on the “Spout” podcast that she was sober throughout the creation of the album, something she is “so proud of.”

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  • Georgia Bulldogs crush the Texas Christian University Horned Frogs 65-7 to win second consecutive College Football Playoff National Championship | CNN

    Georgia Bulldogs crush the Texas Christian University Horned Frogs 65-7 to win second consecutive College Football Playoff National Championship | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    The No. 1 Georgia Bulldogs scored on their first six drives and dominated No. 3 Texas Christian University 65-7 to win their second consecutive College Football Playoff championship game on Monday night in Inglewood, California.

    In the convincing win, Heisman Trophy-finalist quarterback Stetson Bennett passed for four touchdowns and ran for two more to lead the Bulldogs (15-0), who became the first team to win back-to-back national titles since Alabama in 2011 and 2012.

    Bennett finished 18-of-25 with 304 yards passing in his final collegiate contest. He left the game with 13:25 remaining in the fourth quarter.

    Georgia built a 38-7 halftime lead, scoring the final 28 points before intermission after TCU’s Max Duggan, the Heisman Trophy runner-up, rushed for a touchdown that made it 10-7 with 5:45 left in the first quarter.

    The Bulldogs controlled play and the clock in the half, having the ball for almost 19 of the first 30 minutes and outgaining the Horned Frogs (13-2) 354 yards to just 121.

    The onslaught continued in the second half until Georgia head coach Kirby Smart effectively called off the dogs and began using more second-team players in the fourth quarter. By then it was 52-7.

    Georgia’s Ladd McConkey, a sophomore wide receiver, had two touchdown grabs, including a wide-open, 37-yard reception that brought the first six of the Bulldogs’ 55 consecutive points.

    Sophomore tight end Brock Bowers, the national player of the year at his position, had one touchdown catch in his seven receptions and 152 yards receiving.

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  • Pope Francis leads funeral for predecessor Benedict XVI, a first in modern times | CNN

    Pope Francis leads funeral for predecessor Benedict XVI, a first in modern times | CNN

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    Rome
    CNN
     — 

    Pope Francis paid tribute to his predecessor former Pope Benedict XVI Thursday, in a funeral attended by tens of thousands of mourners at St. Peter’s Square.

    The event marked the first occasion in modern times that a pontiff had presided over the funeral of his predecessor – and the first ever of one who resigned. Benedict, the first pontiff in almost 600 years to resign his position, rather than hold office for life, died aged 95 on December 31 at a monastery in Vatican City.

    It was an occasion characterized by simplicity, as per the wish of the former pope. “It’s difficult to have a simple service in St. Peter’s Square, but I think it was,” Father James Martin, a Jesuit priest, writer and editor, told CNN’s Max Foster and Bianca Nobilo on CNN Newsroom.

    “You have to have some pomp and ceremony for a former pope, but I think within the guidelines of what Pope Emeritus Benedict wanted, it succeeded very well.”

    About 50,000 people attended the funeral in St. Peter’s Square according to Vatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni, with many members of the crowd calling for the late pope to be consecrated a saint.

    The attendance compared with an estimated 1.1 million people for the funeral of Benedict’s predecessor, Pope John Paul II. There were 500,000 people in St. Peter’s Square and the surrounding area in 2005, and another 600,000 who watched on video screens in other parts of Rome.

    John Paul II’s funeral was the largest gathering of heads of state ever outside the United Nations. Delegations included nine monarchs along with 70 presidents and prime ministers.

    Over the six days between John Paul II’s death and his funeral, an estimated 3 million people came to pay their final respects. Each hour, 21,000 people passed through St. Peter’s Basilica. The average wait to see the pope was 13 hours, and at its maximum the line was 3 miles long.

    In pictures: The funeral of former Pope Benedict XVI


    Dignitaries and religious leaders lined the square on Thursday, which can seat approximately 60,000 people, for the ceremony. Prime Minister Petr Fiala of the Czech Republic, was among those in attendance, according to CNN affiliate CNN Prima.

    The ceremony was similar to that of a reigning pope but with some modifications. Benedict was named pope emeritus during the funeral, and the language of some prayers was different because he was not the reigning pope when he died.

    Francis started leading the mass Thursday morning, during which he gave a homily at about 10 a.m. local time (4 a.m. ET). Members of the crowd later took part in a Communion.

    Benedict’s coffin was transported through the Basilica and transferred to the Vatican crypt for the burial, in the first tomb of John Paul II. The tomb was vacated after John Paul II’s body and remains were moved to a chapel inside the Basilica after he became a saint.

    As Benedict’s coffin was carried to St. Peter’s Basilica, many members of the crowd could be heard chanting “Santo Subito,” which is a call for the Pope Emeritus to become a saint immediately.

    “God’s faithful people, gathered here, now accompanies and entrusts to him the life of the one who was their pastor,” Francis said as he delivered the homily.

    “Like the women at the tomb, we too have come with the fragrance of gratitude and the balm of hope, in order to show him once more the love that is undying. We want to do this with the same wisdom, tenderness and devotion that he bestowed upon us over the years. Together, we want to say: ‘Father, into your hands we commend his spirit.’

    “Benedict, faithful friend of the Bridegroom, may your joy be complete as you hear his voice, now and forever,” Francis added.

    Members of the faithful, including Georg Gänswein (second from right), archbishop of the Curia and longtime private secretary to the late Benedict, are in attendance.

    At the time of the burial during the rite, a webbing was placed around the coffin with the seals of the apostolic chamber, the pontifical house and liturgical celebrations. The cypress coffin was placed inside a zinc coffin that is soldered and sealed, and subsequently placed inside a wooden coffin, which was buried, according to Bruni.

    The ceremony is expected to end at around 11:15 a.m. local time (5.15 a.m. ET).

    High-profile dignitaries including Queen Sofia of Spain and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz are set to attend the funeral, alongside US Ambassador to the Holy See Joe Donelly.

    Benedict's coffin was carried through St. Peter's Square.

    Cardinals paid tribute to the former pope.

    Benedict was elected pope in April 2005 following John Paul II’s death. He was known to be more conservative than his successor, Pope Francis, who has made moves to soften the Vatican’s position on abortion and homosexuality, as well as doing more to deal with the sexual abuse crisis that has engulfed the church in recent years and clouded Benedict’s legacy.

    The scroll that was put inside Pope Benedict XVI’s coffin, which is a biography of his life and mentions some of the most important moments of his tenure, recalls that he “firmly” fought against pedophilia.

    “He firmly fought against crimes committed by members of the clergy against minors or vulnerable persons, continually calling the Church to conversion, prayer, penance and purification,” the scroll said.

    His death prompted tributes from political and religious leaders including US President Joe Biden, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and the Dalai Lama.

    About 200,000 mourners, including Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and President Sergio Mattarella, paid their respects to the former pontiff earlier this week during his lying-in-state in St. Peter’s Basilica.

    The public viewing of Benedict finished Wednesday, before an intimate religious rite during which items including coins and medals minted over his tenure and a scroll about the pontificate were placed into his sealed cypress coffin ahead of the funeral.

    Meloni paid homage to “enlightened theologian” Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI in a tweet on Thursday.

    “Today in St. Peter’s to bid a last farewell to Benedict XVI, Pope Emeritus. Enlightened theologian who leaves us a spiritual and intellectual legacy of faith, trust and hope,” Meloni tweeted after the funeral, which she attended.

    “We have the task of always preserving and honoring it and of carrying on its precious teachings,” she added.

    The Italian government previously announced on Wednesday that Italian and European flags would be flying at half-staff on public buildings across Italy on Thursday.

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  • Damar Hamlin’s doctors are working to get him breathing without a ventilator after his mid-game cardiac arrest left him in critical condition | CNN

    Damar Hamlin’s doctors are working to get him breathing without a ventilator after his mid-game cardiac arrest left him in critical condition | CNN

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    Cincinnati
    CNN
     — 

    After suffering a cardiac arrest mid-game on Monday, Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin remains sedated on a ventilator as doctors work toward getting him to breathe on his own, his uncle said, while uneasy supporters across the nation await word of his fate.

    The 24-year-old player still was in critical condition Tuesday night, his uncle Dorrian Glenn told CNN, after his collapse on the field the prior night halted the Bills game against the Cincinnati Bengals, stunning a packed stadium that had only moments earlier been rippling with excitement over the catch and run ahead of Hamlin’s tackle of a Bengals wide receiver.

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    In just seconds, medical personnel were rushing onto the field to administer CPR and resuscitate Hamlin in front of his teammates, many of whom fell to their knees, sent up a prayer or were openly weeping and embracing one another.

    Hamlin would be resuscitated twice that night – once on the field and again when he was hurried into the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, where he was still being treated Tuesday night, his uncle said.

    “I’m not a crier, but I’ve never cried so hard in my life. Just to know, like, my nephew basically died on the field and they brought him back to life,” Glenn said.

    Hamlin is on a ventilator to relieve some of the strain on his lungs, which have been damaged, according to Glenn. The doctors told Glenn his nephew has also been “flipped over on his stomach” in the hospital to help with the blood on his lungs, he said, adding, “It seems like he’s trending upwards in a positive way.”

    The game was suspended with nearly six minutes left in the first quarter and was later officially postponed. It will not be resumed this week, and no decision has been made on whether to continue it at a later date, the NFL said Tuesday.

    On-field injuries are not uncommon in the league, which often resumes play even after severe cases. But several current and former players have said Hamlin’s cardiac arrest felt especially disturbing as medical personnel fought to save his life while fans and players looked on.

    Bills offensive tackle Dion Dawkins realized the gravity of his teammate’s condition when Hamlin stayed on the ground as more and more medical staff were called over, he said.

    “In that moment, you’re just thinking like, ‘What can I do? What can we do?’ And it just immediately breaks you down into prayer,” Dawkins told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Tuesday. “Whether you’re a believer or not, only a higher power can really take control of what is next. And our people that help also assisted that higher power.”

    Hamlin’s collapse marks the latest in a series of tragic blows for the players and Buffalo community, which in the past few months has endured a racist mass shooting and a historic blizzard that left at least 41 people dead in Erie County, New York. “It has been, you know, just (a) constant beating for Buffalo,” Dawkins said.

    A swell of support has surrounded Hamlin and his family as messages of prayers and well wishes have flooded in from star athletes, fans and national leaders. A fundraiser that Hamlin previously had started for his Chasing M’s Foundation toy drive has raised more than $6 million since his hospitalization.

    At a prayer service for the player Tuesday night, community members described the heartbreak of watching “one of our own” endure such a crisis.

    “All you can do right now is pray for Damar. The man, not the football player, not the Buffalo Bill, but the person. He has to pull through,” the city’s poet laureate Jillian Hanesworth said.

    It is still unclear what led to Hamlin’s cardiac arrest – a condition that results from electrical disturbances that cause the heart to suddenly stop beating properly. Death can occur quickly if help isn’t rendered immediately. It is not the same as a heart attack or heart failure.

    When the heart is not beating well, fluid can sometimes back up into the lungs and make it hard for medical staff to oxygenate the patient, CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta explained. So, they will flip the person on their stomach into a prone position to make breathing easier.

    It sounds like Hamlin is still having a significant amount of cardiac dysfunction and his heart cannot pump enough blood, Gupta said.

    One of the treatment options is to decrease the body’s demand for oxygenated blood, he told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Tuesday.

    “So, you want to improve the amount of circulation, but in the interim, you can also decrease the demand by sedating somebody, by keeping them on a breathing machine,” he said. “Sometimes they’ll even use cooling agents, hypothermia it’s called, to basically almost put the body in more of a hibernation-like state so it’s not demanding as much oxygenated blood. That’s part of the reason he would be on a breathing machine as well.”

    Hamlin’s family on Tuesday thanked the UC Medical Center staff “who have provided exceptional care to Damar.”

    “On behalf of our family, we want to express our sincere gratitude for the love and support shown to Damar during this challenging time. We are deeply moved by the prayers, kind words, and donations from fans around the country,” its statement said.

    Damar Hamlin, 24, has been with the Buffalo Bills for two years and played every game this season.

    Several star athletes – including tennis player Coco Gauff, the NFL’s JJ Watt and NBA legend LeBron James – have applauded the NFL’s decision to postpone the game and have emphasized the importance of Hamlin’s safe recovery over the game’s outcome

    Former NFL player Donté Stallworth said the league’s decision to postpone the game wouldn’t have happened years ago. “Five, 10 years ago, the game probably would have resumed,” he told CNN’s Jim Sciutto on Tuesday.

    “I don’t know if you can make the game any much safer,” he said. “This is a brutal sport. I think people forget that. They look at players more as commodities sometimes, especially with fantasy football.

    “Sometimes we forget the human side, that these players are actually human beings and they have families and they have wives and kids,” he added, pointing out that Hamlin’s “mother was there witnessing this with her own eyes.”

    Dawkins was relieved and grateful that his team did not have to continue playing, he said.

    “The fact that we did not have to go back out there on that field and play just shows that there is care, and that’s all we can ever ask for is that we get treated as people,” he said. “Because most people just treat us as athletes, as superstars, and some people like celebrities, but in that moment they treated us like people.”

    Bills players and staff are still processing Monday night’s events, a source within the team told CNN’s Coy Wire on Tuesday.

    The continued shock of Hamlin’s hospitalization – on top of the city’s mass shooting in May, deadly December blizzard, having a home game in November moved to Detroit and getting stuck in Chicago during the holidays – has been heavy on everyone associated with the club, the source said.

    “Everyone is exhausted,” the source told Wire, adding that the team’s flight back to New York didn’t land until 3:30 a.m. ET on Tuesday.

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  • 18 of Asia’s most underrated places | CNN

    18 of Asia’s most underrated places | CNN

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    Editor’s Note: Sign up for Unlocking the World, CNN Travel’s weekly newsletter. Get news about destinations opening, inspiration for future adventures, plus the latest in aviation, food and drink, where to stay and other travel developments.



    CNN
     — 

    Comprising more than 40 countries, Asia can’t be summed up easily.

    The classics are classics for a reason – from the awe-inspiring architecture of Angkor Wat and the Taj Mahal to the buzzy metropolises of Tokyo and Hong Kong and the beaches of Bali and Phuket, it’s impossible for any traveler to find something not to their liking.

    But for the travelers who are fortunate enough to have time to dig a little bit deeper, there are less-crowded, equally-rewarding treasures to be found.

    CNN Travel tapped into our network of colleagues and contributors to ask them where the locals go. Here’s what they had to say.

    When it comes to great Malaysian food cities, most people think of Penang. But that’s only because they haven’t been to Ipoh.

    The capital city of Perak state, Ipoh’s location between Kuala Lumpur and Georgetown makes it an ideal stop for any Malaysian road trip. It’s also the gateway to Cameron Highlands, a district known for its cool weather and tea plantations.

    Ipoh’s food and world famous white coffee are enough reasons to visit but there are also magnificent limestone hills and caves that are home to unique temples as well as amazing hidden bars.

    Visit the Chinese temples of Perak Tong, Sam Poh Tong and Kek Lok Tong and be blown away by intricate stone carvings and bronze statues of Chinese deities surrounded by stalactites and stalagmites. Ipoh’s colonial legacy is also evident in its architecture: from its Railway Station to the Birch Clock Tower, town hall and the Old Post Office.

    – Heather Chen, Asia writer

    As popular as Thailand is among international tourists, the country’s northeast – collectively referred to as Isaan – is usually overlooked.

    But for those in search of a less-traveled destination that includes historic architecture, dramatic landscapes and culinary delights, Isaan ticks all the right boxes, and then some.

    Visitors will find it’s one of the most welcoming destinations in Asia and easily accessible, thanks to excellent infrastructure that includes several domestic airports offering daily flights to Bangkok and a range of upmarket hotels.

    The only challenge is deciding which highlights to experience. Made up of 20 provinces, Isaan shares borders with Laos and Cambodia, and their influences can be found in the region’s cuisine, language, historic sites and festivals.

    Attractions include the ancient Khmer ruins of Phenom Rung in Buriram, mountainous national parks in Loei, the 75 million-year-old “Three Whale Rock” in Bueng Kam and Bronze Age artifacts in the UNESCO-listed Ban Chiang Archeological Site in Udon Thani.

    And then there’s the food. Isaan cuisine, now prevalent on menus in Thai restaurants around the world, includes refreshing som tom (payaya salad), tangy Sai Grok Isaan (northeastern sausage) and larb, a flavorful minced-meat salad.

    – Karla Cripps, senior producer, CNN Travel

    Most people travel to Leshan city for the sole purpose of visiting the Giant Buddha. The world’s biggest and tallest ancient Buddha statue is indeed stunning, but this Sichuan city deserves much more than a side trip from Chengdu.

    The Mount Emei scenic area – home to the Giant Buddha – is also of great spiritual and cultural importance as the birthplace of Buddhism in China. Many ancient temples are scattered and ingeniously built on the cliffs of the pristine dense forest.

    On top of sightseeing, Leshan is a hidden foodie paradise with local Sichuanese saying “eating in Sichuan, tasting in Leshan.” This city is where Chengdu residents come for authentic bites of iconic Sichuan cuisine: chilled bobo chicken, jellied tofu, Qiaojiao beef, steamed meat with rice powder and more.

    – Serenitie Wang, producer, video programming

    Skardu district, in Pakistan’s Gilit Baltistan region, is a land of stark gigantic beauty, with many of the highest mountains on the planet – most famously K2 – concentrated in this one area.

    Deosai National Park sits on the second highest plateau in the world. It is a riot of color, alive with birds and butterflies. With no ambient city lights the stars are exceptionally bright, with the milky way looking so close it could be plucked out from the sky.

    In contrast, there’s the Sarfaranga Desert. The world’s highest cold desert, it’s filled with diamond-white sands and ebony mountains.

    Skardu has been inhabited for centuries and is studded with ancient Buddhist stupas and carvings, beautifully preserved mosques from the Middle Ages and shrines of Sufi saints.

    The Serena hotel chain has transformed the stunning Shigar Fort and Khaplu Palace into two of the country’s best kept hotels. Both are filled with gardens and climate friendly wooden architecture while serving regional food like Mamtu dumplings and grilled trout.

    – Sophia Saifi, producer, Pakistan

    Nikko is just 150 kilometers (93 miles) north of Tokyo, but it feels like another world.

    This small city is one of the most important sites in Japan for Shinto culture, with the ornate, gold-dripping Toshogu Shrine – a UNESCO World Heritage site – its centerpiece.

    If peace is what you’re after, Nikko is the place to find it. Nikko National Park comprises 443 square miles across three prefectures, with dramatic waterfalls, groves of fir and cedar trees, finely carved gates and rocky outcroppings among the things to experience.

    The park is also home to some of Japan’s famous natural hot springs, making Nikko an ideal autumn or winter destination.

    While the area has long been popular with Tokyo urbanites looking for a bucolic weekend escape, Nikko is beginning to land on the radar of more international tourists – a Ritz Carlton opened there just before the pandemic.

    – Lilit Marcus, digital producer, CNN Travel

    With its fresh mountain air and pine forests in the Central Highlands of Vietnam, Dalat is a popular destination for local Vietnamese that isn’t as well known among international travelers.

    At 1,500 meters above sea level, the city’s cooler weather is a welcome reprieve from the tropical humidity found elsewhere in the Southeast Asian country.

    Centered around the romantic Xuan Huong Lake, Dalat boasts everything from French colonial architecture – a holdover from its days as a hill station – to the “Crazy House,” the Seussian creation of architect Đặng Việt Nga, with its twisting stairwells and whimsical sculptures. Plentiful waterfalls and a vibrant flower industry mean that delights abound in the city for honeymooners and nature lovers.

    – Dan Tham, producer, Global Features

    Urban Davao City is beloved for its night market.

    Davao City is more than just a provincial capital of the southernmost part of the Philippines — it’s a true mosaic of Filipino cultures seen nowhere else across the country.

    There’s food for everybody at the Roxas Night Market, which is lined with barbecue and grilled seafood, along with humble yet complex delicacies such as the fresh seaweed salad called lato and hearty law-uy vegetable soup. Nothing represents Davao more than pungent durians, which grow in abundance across the region as well as pineapples, bananas and sugarcane – served in all forms from shakes to pies.

    The city takes pride in its indigenous roots and celebrates the Kadwayan Festival in August to showcase local textiles, woodwork, song and dance from 11 tribes that reign from the mountains and its surrounding sea.

    A ferry ride away from the city will transport you to luxurious Samal Island, best known for its pristine beaches and pearl farms. Take a roadtrip along the palm tree-lined paths that lead to the surfer spot of Mati, or perhaps a detour to Mount Apo, the highest mountain and volcano in the Philippines.

    – Kathleen Magramo, breaking news writer

    The northeast Indian state of Meghalaya, which translates to “abode in the clouds,” boasts some of the country’s most peaceful and lush landscapes. As it requires a permit, it can be challenging to visit. But it’s worth it.

    Meghalaya is home to the towns of Cherrapunji and Mawlynnong. Both hold records for being the wettest places on Earth, having received nearly 12,000 mm (472 inches) of rain a year. The results are verdant, leafy forests with rivers and creeks running through that can be explored through crossing the state’s famous bridges.

    Built by locals out of the roots of ficus trees, some are as old as 500 years and symbolize the self-sufficiency of the Khasi indigenous tribe and their relationship with the forest. The living root bridges, known as “jingkieng jri” in the Khasi language, can be found in over 70 villages and continue to be used and nurtured by locals to keep them alive for future generations.

    In 2022, they were added to UNESCO’s tentative list of World Heritage sites. The most famous living root bridges are the Umshiang Double Decker root bridge in Nongriat village, south of Cherrapunji, and one in Riwai near Mawlynnong, certified as the “cleanest village in Asia” since 2003 by UNESCO.

    – Manveena Suri, freelance producer

    Palau Ubin is just a short ferry ride away from mainland Singapore.

    Thought Singapore was all about parties and skyscrapers? Think again. Located offshore from its northeast Changi region is Pulau Ubin (Malay for “granite island”), a nature lover’s paradise with jungle trails, mangrove wetlands and majestic quarries.

    Getting around the island is a breeze: In true Singaporean style, everything is well-marked, from jungle trails to concrete footpaths, but the island still remains very untouched.

    Mountain biking is particularly popular, especially on weekdays when crowds are few. But Ubin really comes to life on weekends – when families, couples and nature lovers descend, hoping to catch a glimpse of old Singapore.

    One of the most popular attractions on the island is Chek Jawa, a saltwater mangrove wetland rich in marine life. A well-built wooden boardwalk runs through the mangrove, allowing visitors to observe plant and marine life such as sea sponges, octopuses, starfish and cuttlefish, at close range.

    – H.C.

    Indonesia is comprised of several thousand islands – and, in the case of Samosir, an island on a lake within an island.

    Samosir Island is a volcanic island in North Sumatra’s Lake Toba. one of the world’s largest crater lakes.

    The Batak tribe calls this land their home, and you can meet these locals as they sell handicrafts from their villages along the waterfront, where their houses are built from wooden beams lashed to stones and have tall red roofs that resemble a ship’s sails.

    As Samosir is several hours’ drive and ferry ride from the closest airport, opt to spend the night in a homestay and support the community by purchasing ulos, a UNESCO-recognized woven, naturally dyed cloth that is used in every important facet of Betak life.

    – L.M.

    Northern Laos – home to elegant Luang Prabang and adventure-loving Vang Vieng – get the lion’s share of attention. But head south for a different kind of experience in Pakse, where two rivers converge in the country’s second biggest city.

    Pakse is diverse, pulsing and modern. It has buildings left over from the days of French colonialism, but these days Vietnamese and Chinese communities bring their foods, traditions and references alongside the existing Lao presence.

    While in town, head up to the giant gold Buddha at Wat Pho Salao, stroll along the Mekong at sunset, and then go off to the Bolaven Plateau to get deeper into jungle.

    – L.M.

    India casts a long tourism shadow over its neighbors, including Bangladesh. But this smaller nation has outsized offerings many travelers to South Asia might not realize. This is especially true in architecture, history, nature and food.

    In the capital of Dhaka, the Ahsan Manzil is an ornate, stunning vision in pink. Set on the banks of the Buriganga River, it was finished in 1872 during the British colonial era as a palace for the local rulers of the time. It is now a popular museum.

    For a sample of Mughal Empire architectural splendor, check out the incomplete Lalbagh Fort.

    And if you’d like to visit a mosque, consider the exquisite Star Mosque (Tara Masjid), renowned for hundreds of blue stars on its gleaming white domes.

    – Forrest Brown, freelance writer and producer

    Lijiang's old town, in Yunnan province, is popular with Chinese domestic travelers.

    Even though China is still closed to international tourists, Yunnan province has already welcomed about 350 million domestic visitors in the first half of 2022 alone.

    If you’d like to see the historical Yunnan like an experienced local, head to Tengchong.

    Bordering Myanmar in the west of Yunnan, Tengchong has been a critical trading stop on the historic Silk Route and Tea Horse Road in the past.

    Today, many local travelers first visit Heshun, an old town built surrounding a mountain and a lake. The Double Rainbow stone arch bridges, the Laundry Pavilion and the 98-year-old Heshun Library – the biggest rural public library in China – are some of the must-sees when visiting the cozy village.

    Yinxing (Gingko) Village in the northern side of Tengchong is known for its thousands of ginkgo trees, turning the village golden yellow every autumn.

    – Maggie Hiufu Wong, freelance CNN Travel writer

    The Gogunsan islands – meaning “an archipelago of mountains” in Korean – have been a popular summer destination for locals seeking a break from city life.

    A group of 63 islands on South Korea’s west coast, the islands offer a picturesque view of verdant hills scattered amid gentle waters.

    The world’s longest seawall and a series of bridges connect the islands to the mainland, making them an especially attractive destination for those behind wheels. The landscape invites visitors to light hikes and swim afterwards.

    – Jake Kwon, newsdesk producer

    Lan Ha Bay is a less-visited waterwat in northeastern Vietnam.

    Ha Long Bay in northern Vietnam is no secret – the UNESCO-listed waterway has long been popular with backpackers and luxury travelers alike.

    But visitors who want to ply the waters with a lot fewer neighbors should head to Lan Ha, south of Ha Long Bay. Like its more famous sibling, Lan Ha Bay is a stretch of shimmering water broken up by limestone (karst) islands that can be enjoyed by day trip (kayak, canoe) or overnight (cruise ship, junk boat).

    Most travelers get here by bus or car from Hanoi or Haiphong, and it’s easy to set up door-to-door service with tour companies in advance.

    Leave from Cat Ba Island to explore Lan Ha Bay’s grottoes, caves and white-sand beaches.

    – L.M.

    On the southern tip of Taiwan lies Kenting, a sunny, laid back peninsula known for its white sandy beach, boisterous night market and chill vibe.

    Take a dip at Baishawan (White Sand Bay); scenes from the “Life of Pi” were filmed here on Wanlitong Beach, a hotspot for snorkeling teeming with marine life.

    Take a stroll at the Eluanbi Park, where a towering lighthouse stands – one of the top eight iconic landmarks on the island – and walk down to the southernmost tip of Taiwan, a perfect spot to watch the sunset.

    No visit to Kenting is complete without a stop at Longpan Park. Take in the panoramic view of the rugged coastline, the majestic cliffs and the grassy hills that together form a jaw-dropping landscape. Given the open space and the lack of lighting, the park is also popular with sunset watchers and stargazers.

    – Wayne Chang, China news desk producer

    Nestled under a canopy of trees, the temple ruins of Banteay Chhmar offer a glimpse into the might of the Khmer Empire – without the hordes of tourists.

    Completed in the late 12th century by Jayavarman VII, the “Citadel of Cats” is in northwest Cambodia, a few hours’ drive from Siem Reap, home to Angkor Wat. Banteay Chhmar is located 20 kilometers from the Thai border and is accessible by taxi from Sisophon, the fourth largest city in Cambodia.

    The massive complex comprises eight temples, featuring stone-faced towers adorned with mysterious smiles. There are also remarkably well-preserved bas-reliefs, depicting religious and military stories. Visitors to this remote, less-traveled part of Cambodia are rewarded with a sense of adventure and quiet.

    – D.T.

    Most foreign tourists head to Sri Lanka’s beautiful south coast or into its central tea country, both of which are fairly easy to reach from the main city of Colombo and beloved by Instagrammers who come to ride the famous rails.

    But the northern patch of the island is worth the sometimes-challenging car or bus trip to get there.

    Jaffna is the primary home of the country’s Tamil-speaking population and still has glimmers of its Indian and Dutch colonial past, resulting in a fascinating, complex culture.

    Start with architecture: the ornate, bright gold Nallur Kandaswamy Kovil Hindu temple and sprawling white Colonial-era Jaffna Library are both exceptional.

    Then, indulge in the food: bananas and mangoes fresh off the trees combine with curries, pickles and rice dishes for filling, inexpensive meals.

    – L.M.

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  • NewYork-Presbyterian nurses reach tentative agreement as nurses at other city hospitals still intend to strike | CNN Business

    NewYork-Presbyterian nurses reach tentative agreement as nurses at other city hospitals still intend to strike | CNN Business

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    CNN
     — 

    Nearly 4,000 union nurses at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital have reached a tentative agreement on a contract, while approximately 12,000 nurses at seven other hospitals will move forward with their intention to strike beginning January 9.

    New York State Nurses Association members at NewYork-Presbyterian reached a tentative deal just hours before their contract expired Saturday “and one day after delivering a 10-day notice to strike,” according to a news release from the group.

    The notice allows time for the hospitals to plan patient care in case of a strike. Nearly 99% of the union members voted last week to authorize the strike, which would affect seven hospitals in all five boroughs of the city.

    Nurses at the seven remaining hospital facilities are expected to continue negotiations this week, according to the union.

    “Nurses are expected to be back at the bargaining table all week at the seven other facilities,” the release noted. “They have been sounding the alarm about the short-staffing crisis that puts patients at risk, especially during a tripledemic of COVID, RSV and flu.”

    The union argued hospitals are not doing enough to keep caregivers with patients, and they say hospitals need to invest in hiring, and retaining nurses to improve patient care.

    “Striking is always a last resort,” union president and nurse Nancy Hagans said in a news release last week. “Nurses have been to hell and back, risking our lives to save our patients throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, sometimes without the PPE we needed to keep ourselves safe, and too often without enough staff for safe patient care.”

    The last-minute negotiations are the latest example of a growing trend of unions leveraging strike threats to improve working conditions. Unions representing workers of train crews at the nation’s freight railroads, mental health professionals, and teachers have all been among the groups to recently strike or lay the groundwork to do so.

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  • Biden remembers Pope Benedict XVI as ‘renowned theologian, with a lifetime of devotion to the Church’ | CNN Politics

    Biden remembers Pope Benedict XVI as ‘renowned theologian, with a lifetime of devotion to the Church’ | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    President Joe Biden mourned the passing of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, saying in a statement Saturday that the late pontiff “will be remembered as a renowned theologian, with a lifetime of devotion to the Church, guided by his principles and faith.”

    Benedict died Saturday at the age of 95 in a Vatican monastery, according to a statement from the Vatican. He was the first pope in almost 600 years to resign his position, rather than hold office for life, doing so in 2013.

    Biden, the second Catholic to serve as president of the United States, reflected on his meeting with Benedict at the Vatican in 2011, recalling the late pontiff’s “generosity and welcome as well as our meaningful conversation.”

    “As he remarked during his 2008 visit to the White House, ‘the need for global solidarity is as urgent as ever, if all people are to live in a way worthy of their dignity.’ May his focus on the ministry of charity continue to be an inspiration to us all,” Biden said Saturday.

    Benedict’s funeral will be held on Thursday in St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City at 9:30 a.m. local time, the Vatican statement said. The funeral will be led by Pope Francis.

    Benedict was a polarizing figure, hailed by conservatives who admired his erudite writings and careful theology. But he faced criticism, particularly in the postmodern West, for his staunch insistence on fidelity to church doctrine and his willingness to silence dissent. He also came under fire for his handling of the sexual abuse crisis that engulfed the Catholic Church during his years as a senior cleric.

    Benedict met with three sitting US presidents – in addition to future President Biden – during his time as leader of the Catholic Church.

    “It was like going back to theology class,” Biden told America, a Jesuit publication, in 2015 of his meeting with Benedict. “And by the way, he wasn’t judgmental. He was open. I came away enlivened from the discussion.”

    In pictures: The life of Pope Benedict XVI


    Benedict met with his first sitting president in 2007 when George W. Bush traveled to the Vatican. Benedict made his only papal visit to the United States the following year. Bush took the rare step of meeting the pope when his plane arrived at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington, DC, and he later welcomed Benedict to the White House with an arrival ceremony on the South Lawn where thousands gathered and sang “Happy Birthday” to the pope, who turned 81 that day.

    Later that year, Bush visited Benedict at the Vatican, where the two men strolled through the Vatican Gardens and met privately for roughly 30 minutes.

    In 2009, President Barack Obama met with Benedict for 30 minutes at the Vatican. Officials at the time said their meeting included discussions on addressing poverty and the Middle East, as well as issues such as abortion and stem cell research.

    Abortion also appeared to be a topic of discussion during Biden’s meeting with Benedict. In his 2015 interview with America, Biden said the two men spoke about Catholic doctrine and the then-vice president’s view that he should not impose his own beliefs on other people, including on issues such as abortion.

    Benedict talked about Biden’s abortion stance after he became president in 2021.

    “It’s true, he’s Catholic and observant. And personally, he is against abortion,” Benedict said in an interview with The Tablet, a Catholic publication. “But as president, he tends to present himself in continuity with the line of the Democratic Party … and on gender policy, we still don’t really understand what his position is.”

    Biden also spoke of Benedict at a White House event this summer, calling him a “great theologian, a very conservative theologian.” The president shared that Benedict had asked him for advice when they met.

    “‘Well, one piece of advice,’ I said, ‘I’d go easy on the nuns. They’re more popular than you are,’” Biden recounted to laughter.

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  • 2 people found dead at Jehovah’s Witnesses Kingdom Hall in Colorado, suspicious device found at the scene | CNN

    2 people found dead at Jehovah’s Witnesses Kingdom Hall in Colorado, suspicious device found at the scene | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Law enforcement officials are investigating a homicide at a Jehovah’s Witnesses Kingdom Hall in Colorado where two adults were found dead, police said.

    “The investigation is still active, witnesses being interviewed, scene being examined,” Thornton Police said in a tweet. “A suspicious device found at the scene is being evaluated by the Hazardous Materials Unit.”

    There is no known threat to the community at this time, police said.

    The cause or manner of death has not been identified, police added.

    Thornton is located about 10 miles north of Denver.

    This is a developing story and will be updated.

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  • Three foreign aid groups suspend work in Afghanistan after Taliban bars female employees | CNN

    Three foreign aid groups suspend work in Afghanistan after Taliban bars female employees | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Three foreign aid groups said Sunday that they were moving to temporarily suspend their operations in Afghanistan after the Taliban barred female employees of non-governmental organizations from coming to work.

    “We cannot effectively reach children, women and men in desperate need in Afghanistan without our female staff,” aid organizations Save the Children, Norwegian Refugee Council and CARE International said in a joint statement Sunday.

    “Without women driving our response, we would not have jointly reached millions of Afghans in need since August 2021. Beyond the impact on delivery of lifesaving assistance, this will affect thousands of jobs in the midst of an enormous economic crisis,” said the statement, which was signed by the heads of the three NGOs.

    “Whilst we gain clarity on this announcement, we are suspending our programmes, demanding that men and women can equally continue our lifesaving assistance in Afghanistan,” the statement added.

    The Taliban administration on Saturday ordered all local and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to stop their female employees from coming to work, according to a letter by the Ministry of Economy sent to all licensed NGOs. Non-compliance will result in revoking the licenses of said NGOs, the ministry said.

    In the letter, the ministry cites the non-observation of Islamic dress rules and other laws and regulations as reasons for the decision.

    “Lately there have been serious complaints regarding not observing the Islamic hijab and other Islamic Emirate’s laws and regulations,” the letter said, adding that as a result “guidance is given to suspend work of all female employees of national and international non-governmental organizations.”

    Earlier this week, the Taliban government suspended university education for all female students in Afghanistan.

    In a televised news conference on Thursday, the Taliban’s higher education minister said they had banned women from universities for not observing Islamic dress rules and other “Islamic values,” citing female students traveling without a male guardian. The move sparked outrage among women in Afghanistan.

    A group of women took to the streets in the city of Herat on Saturday to protest the university ban. Video footage circulating on social media showed Taliban officials using a water cannon to disperse the female protesters. Girls could be seen running from the water cannon and chanting “cowards” at officials.

    The new restrictions mark yet another step in the Taliban’s brutal crackdown on the freedoms of Afghan women, following the hardline Islamist group’s takeover of the country in August 2021.

    Though the Taliban has repeatedly claimed it would protect the rights of girls and women, it has in fact done the opposite, stripping away the hard-won freedoms they have fought tirelessly for over the past two decades.

    Some of its most striking restrictions have been around education, with girls also barred from returning to secondary schools in March. The move devastated many students and their families, who described to CNN their dashed dreams of becoming doctors, teachers or engineers.

    The United Nations on Saturday condemned the Taliban’s NGO announcement and said it would try to obtain a meeting with Taliban leadership to seek clarity.

    “Women must be enabled to play a critical role in all aspects of life, including the humanitarian response. Banning women from work would violate the most fundamental rights of women, as well as be a clear breach of humanitarian principles,” the UN statement read. “This latest decision will only further hurt those most vulnerable, especially women and girls.”

    UNICEF said the order was an “egregious rollback of rights for girls and women (that) will have sweeping consequences on the provision of health, nutrition and education services for children.”

    Amnesty International called for the ban to “be reversed immediately” and for the Taliban to “stop misusing their power.”

    US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also condemned the move Saturday. “Deeply concerned that the Taliban’s ban on women delivering humanitarian aid in Afghanistan will disrupt vital and life-saving assistance to millions,” he wrote on Twitter. “Women are central to humanitarian operations around the world. This decision could be devastating for the Afghan people.”

    Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mojahid said US officials should “not interfere in the internal issues of” Afghanistan.

    “Those organization operative in Afghanistan are obliged to comply with the laws and regulations of our country,” he tweeted Sunday, adding, “We do not permit anyone to state irresponsible words or make threats about the decisions or officials of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan under the title of humanitarian aid.”

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  • Pope Francis has already signed resignation letter in case of bad health | CNN

    Pope Francis has already signed resignation letter in case of bad health | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Pope Francis has revealed in a new interview that he has already signed his resignation letter to be used in the event of him becoming “impaired.”

    Francis made the comment in an interview with Spanish news outlet ABC, published Sunday, when asked what would happen if a pope is suddenly rendered unable to perform his duties due to health issues or an accident.

    Francis said he wrote the letter several years ago and gave it to then-Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who resigned in 2013.

    “I have already signed my renunciation. The Secretary of State at the time was Tarcisio Bertone. I signed it and said: ‘If I should become impaired for medical reasons or whatever, here is my renunciation,’” Francis was quoted as saying.

    “I don’t know who Cardinal Bertone has given that letter to, but I handed it to him when he was the Secretary of State,” Francis said, adding that this was the first time he had spoken publicly about the letter’s existence.

    Francis said past pontiffs Paul VI and Pious XII had also drafted their letters of renunciation in the event of a permanent impairment.

    Francis, 86, appears to be in good health apart from knee problems. He has often been seen with a walking stick and sometimes uses a wheelchair due to pain in his right knee.

    Earlier this year, he canceled a trip to Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan after doctors said he might also have to miss a later trip to Canada unless he agreed to have 20 more days of therapy and rest for his right knee.

    Last year, he had surgery to remove part of his colon due to diverticulitis, a common condition.

    In 2013, Francis’ immediate predecessor, Pope Benedict, made the almost unprecedented decision to resign from his position, citing the reason as “advanced age” and startling the Catholic world.

    It marked the first time a pope had stepped down in nearly 600 years. The last pope to step down before his death was Gregory XII, who in 1415 quit to end a civil war within the church in which more than one man claimed to be pope.

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  • Judge who suspended abortion pill failed to disclose interviews that discussed social issues | CNN Politics

    Judge who suspended abortion pill failed to disclose interviews that discussed social issues | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    The federal district judge who first suspended the US Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the so-called abortion pill mifepristone failed to disclose during his Senate confirmation process two interviews on Christian talk radio where he discussed social issues such as contraception and gay rights.

    In undisclosed radio interviews, Matthew Kacsmaryk referred to being gay as “a lifestyle” and expressed concerns that new norms for “people who experience same-sex attraction” would lead to clashes with religious institutions, calling it the latest in a change in sexual norms that began with “no-fault divorce” and “permissive policies on contraception.”

    Kacsmaryk, a Trump-appointed federal district judge, made the unreported comments in two appearances in 2014 on Chosen Generation, a radio show that offers “a biblical constitutional worldview.” At the time, Kacsmaryk was deputy general counsel at First Liberty Institute, a nonprofit religious liberty advocacy group known before 2016 as the Liberty Institute, and was brought on to the radio show to discuss “the homosexual agenda” to silence churches and religious liberty, according to the show’s host.

    Federal judicial nominees are required to submit detailed paperwork to the Senate Judiciary Committee ahead of their confirmation process, including copies of nearly everything they have ever written or said in public, in order for the committee to evaluate a nominee’s qualifications and personal opinions. Neither interview is listed in the paperwork Kacsmaryk provided to the Senate during his judicial nomination process, which first began in 2017.

    The radio interviews were not included in the 22 media works Kacsmaryk disclosed, which included three radio appearances and 19 written pieces.

    A spokesperson for Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told CNN the interviews weren’t in their archived files from Kacsmaryk’s confirmation, which included all paperwork submitted for his nomination.

    In a statement sent to CNN, Kacsmaryk said he did not locate the interview when searching for media to disclose and he did not recall the interview.

    “I used the DOJ-OLP manual to run searches for all media but did not locate this interview and did not recall this event, which involved a call-in to a local radio show,” he told CNN. “After listening to the audio file supplied by CNN, I agree that the content is equivalent to the legal analysis appearing throughout my SJQ and discussed extensively during my Senate confirmation hearing. Additionally, the transcript supplied by CNN appears to track with the audio and accurately recounts my responses during the phone call—when quoted in full.”

    The Washington Post reported last week that Kacsmaryk removed his name in 2017 from a pending law review article criticizing protections for transgender people and those seeking abortions during his judicial nomination process, a highly unusual move for a judicial nominee.

    Kacsmaryk did not respond to the Post’s request for comment, but a spokesperson for his old employer First Liberty claimed Kacsmaryk’s name had been a “placeholder” on the article and that Kacsmaryk had not provided a “substantive contribution,” despite the final version being almost identical to the one submitted under Kacsmaryk’s name according to the Post.

    Kacsmaryk later submitted supplemental material in 2019 to the committee to reflect interviews and events he participated since in 2017, but neither of the 2014 radio interviews were included.

    Democratic senators grilled Kacsmaryk on his positions on abortion and LGBTQ rights during both his nomination hearing and in written questions in 2017.

    While Kacsmaryk worked at First Liberty, one of his colleagues, general counsel Jeff Mateer, was also nominated for a federal judgeship. But Mateer came under scrutiny in 2017 for comments unearthed during his confirmation process in which he once compared the US to Nazi Germany on Chosen Generation – the same radio program Kacsmaryk appeared on and whose interviews he did not disclose.

    Mateer’s nomination was later rescinded; Kacsmaryk was later confirmed in 2019.

    The interviews were shared by Kacsmaryk’s employer, the Liberty Institute, at the time on social media. A guest from First Liberty appeared once a week, according to the show’s radio host in the broadcast and archives available online.

    In one interview from February 2014, in response to a question on the “homosexual agenda,” Kacsmaryk expressed concerns that new social norms surrounding “same-sex marriage” and “people who experience same-sex attraction” would lead to clashes with religious institutions.

    “I just want to make very clear, people who experience a same-sex attraction are not responsible individually or solely for the atmosphere of the sexual revolution,” Kacsmaryk said. “You know it. It’s a long time coming. It came after no-fault divorce. It came after we implemented very permissive policies on contraception. The sexual revolution has gone through several phases. We just happen to be at the phase now where same sex marriages is at the fore.”

    “But through that progression or regression, I think you can see five areas where there will be a clash of absolutes between the traditional Judeo-Christian understanding of marriage and the revisionist, redefined vision of marriage that you saw in last term’s Supreme Court opinions,” he said before outlining those areas as over tax exempt statuses, adoption services, federal government programs, and discrimination at universities.

    He appeared on the program to discuss the federal government’s view of same-sex marriage and opponents of it following the court ruling striking down the Defense of Marriage Act. The host suggested opponents of same-sex marriage could be viewed as “hostile” enemies of the government in line with al-Qaeda, which Kacsmaryk agreed with.

    “Yeah, and I can speak from immediate firsthand experience,” he said, citing his work formerly in the Justice Department. “That is very much in vogue now in the federal government to characterize opposition to same sex marriage and related issues as irrational prejudice at best and a potential hate crime at worse,” he continued.

    “It really has infused the entire federal service top to bottom as the administration has declared that they will join this culture war, that there’s one side that is destined to win and that you’re on the wrong side of history in the federal government if you are on an opposing side,” he added.

    Kacsmaryk also appeared on the program in July 2014 to discuss an executive order signed by then-President Barack Obama that banned federal contractors from discriminating against employees on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity which did not exempt faith-based groups.

    Kacsmaryk linked changes in Democrats’ views on the issue of religious freedom to the “emergence of this very powerful constituency in the LGBT community,” which he said the Obama administration made campaign promises to fulfill. Kacsmaryk said religious organizations entering into contracts with the federal government would have risk under the executive order and face a “real burden” for dissenting from “the new sexual orthodoxy” on gay rights.

    The new rules, Kacsmaryk suggested, were poorly written and didn’t differentiate between gay people who lived “celibate” lives and those who made being gay “a lifestyle,” in a discussion of how religious groups would comply with the new rules.

    “If you look at the letter that was issued by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, they point out that the category sexual orientation is problematic because it’s not defined,” he said. “Most Abrahamic faith traditions will draw a distinction between someone who experiences the same sex attraction but is willing to live celibate and somebody who experiences the same sex attraction and makes it a lifestyle and seeks to sexualize that lifestyle. Those are two different categories that most Abrahamic faith traditions recognize.”

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