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The pope overcomes the hard test of his longest trip
Pope Francis concluded what was supposed to be a tough test in his pontificate: the longest international trip, 12 days in which he has traveled four countries – Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore – and in which despite his 87 years and his mobility problems he overcame without problems in good shape and without showing signs of weakness.
A pope to whom the trip seems to have not made a dent
The trip in which he has traveled 32,000 kilometers, added to those he made by car and mobile among the faithful, the four schedule changes and seven flights, do not seem to have made a dent in the pontiff who said goodbye to Singapore on Friday with a visit to a home for the elderly and a meeting with the young people in which he showed good humor again.
It is true that with respect to other trips, the pace of the events has been slowed down and he has been allowed to rest from one country to another with some free hours on arrival.
But the Argentine pontiff, who due to his knee pain has to move in a wheelchair, has not given up anything, including the strenuous tours in papamóvil of more than 40 minutes among the faithful in the massive masses that he has celebrated and also fighting with the heat and humidity of these countries.
For more than 40 minutes he was touring the huge esplanade ed Taci Tolu in Dili with intense humidity and heat despite the fact that the sunset was waiting to greet the faithful at the end of the mass in which about 600,000 people gathered, practically almost half of the population of East Timor.
Francisco “regenerates” with the affection of people
“The pope regenerates the affection of the people. All these people were not expected in their path as has been seen in countries like East Timor and that gives it strength,” explains one of the people from the Vatican delegation.
And he tells the pope’s great satisfaction for having been able to go to Vánimo, a remote town in Papua New Guinea, after having traveled another two hours by plane, to visit the Argentine missionaries who work there among the poorest of one of the poorest countries in the world.
Francisco has been seen shaking thousands of hands from the long lines that formed after his actions to be able to greet him without losing patience, stop the car on numerous occasions to bless the babies that his parents had taken to the sides of the road to see him just spend a moment and always approach the sick for a caress.
And distribute candies among the children, one by one, who showed off with songs, dances and playing their instruments during their acts, although always in their wheelchairs.
Francisco, with Asia in his heart
Francis, a great lover of Asia, following in the footsteps of the Jesuits to whom he belongs, has also wanted to demonstrate that this Continent is hope for the Catholic Church, which loses faithful in secularized Europe while in Latin America the evangelist churches make their way.
East Timor is considered the most Catholic country in the world – not counting the Vatican, with 95% of the population and so he showed it by taking to the streets the two and a half days that the visit lasted.
Even in Singapore, a multi-religious country, where around 43% of its more than five million inhabitants are Buddhists, about 20% are Christians, 14% Muslims, the Catholic Church currently has 176,000 faithful but it is the only one that grows every year, they say.
International
Trump will nominate Doug Burgum, governor of North Dakota, as Secretary of the Interior
The president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, will officially announce on Friday the nomination of the governor of North Dakota, Doug Burgum, as the next Secretary of the Interior.
This was announced on Thursday night during the speech he offered at the gala dinner held at his private club in Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach (Florida), which from today until Saturday hosts a new edition of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).
“We are going to reduce regulatory waste, fraud and inefficiency,” promised the Republican, winner of the electoral fair on November 5 and who will assume his second term on January 20.
Burgum: another one that Trump left in the race
Billionaire and former executive director of a technology company, Burgum ran in the primaries for the nomination of the Republican Party and even participated in the first two debates, finally abandoned the race to the White House last December.
Shortly after, Bergum, 68 years old and governor of North Dakota since 2016, gave his support to the former president (2017-2021) in the race for the Republican nomination and campaigned with him in several events.
His name was even on the final list of the Republican’s possible presidential running mates, who finally opted for Ohio Senator JD Vance.
The ‘gala’ of the CPAC
The president-elect has today been the leading figure of the gala dinner of the conservative America First Policy Institute that is held in his mansion and social club, and in which he has been presented by actor Sylvester Stallone, who referred to the Republican as “the second George Washington.”
JD Vance, the speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, and billionaire Elon Musk, who is having a prominent participation in the transition process of the future Trump Administration, have been part of the gala.
“He’s good. He has done a fantastic job. Really an incredible mind,” Trump said at dinner.
The president of Argentina, Javier Milei, also participated in the event, who on the podium was “grateful” and “blessed” to be among “true giants.”
“You have done a fantastic job in a short time and it is an honor to have you here,” Trump said, who stressed that the libertarian “has made Argentina great again,” alluding to the slogan of his campaign since 2016.
The US president-elect announced today another outstanding nomination: that of former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., known for his conspiracy theories about vaccines, as the new Secretary of Health.
Sin categoría
Russia moves more than 7,000 North Korean soldiers to the border with Ukraine
Russia moved more than 7,000 North Korean soldiers to areas near the border with Ukraine in the last week of October, Ukrainian military intelligence (GUR) reported.
North Korean troops were transferred from training camps in eastern Russia – of which there are at least 5 – with the help of at least 28 military aircraft, GUR revealed on its Telegram channel.
The soldiers were equipped by Russia with mortars, AK-12 assault rifles, various machine guns, sniper rifles and anti-tank weapons. They also received some vision devices, thermographic cameras, sights and binoculars, according to GUR.
“It’s quite surprising that the world is turning a blind eye”
“It is quite surprising that the world is turning a blind eye to North Korea’s increasingly aggressive actions,” reacted Andri Yermak, head of the Ukrainian President’s office, Volodimir Zelenski.
Ukraine sees all the places where Russia is concentrating North Korean soldiers and could carry out preventive attacks against them if it had the permission of its Western allies, Zelenski had said on Friday night.
Instead of granting Ukraine this capacity, the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany are “simply waiting” for North Korean soldiers to start attacking the Ukrainians, the president wrote on Telegram, urging his country’s allies to act to prevent the escalation of the war.
Russia knocks down 26 Ukrainian drones
In addition, Russian anti-aircraft defenses shot down 24 Ukrainian drones last night over six regions of the country and the annexed Crimean peninsula, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported today on its Telegram channel.
According to the military report, all the unmanned aircraft used in the attack were fixed-wing.
Drones shot down in the Kursk region
Eight of the drones destroyed last night were shot down in the Kursk region, which borders Ukraine and part of whose territory has been occupied by Ukrainian troops since last August.
The night before over the Kursk region, 34 Ukrainian drones were destroyed.
The situation in that Russian federated entity is being followed with great attention because both the United States and NATO have denounced the deployment by Moscow of North Korean troops in that territory.
The Russian Ministry of Defense indicated that the other drones shot down last night were intercepted over the regions of Bryansk (8), Belgorod (2), Rostov (1) – all of them also bordering Ukraine -, Oriol (3), Nizhny Novgorod (1) and the Crimean Peninsula (1).
Sin categoría
UN envoy for the Sahara: “it’s time for Morocco to explain its autonomy plan”
The UN special envoy for Western Sahara, Staffan De Mistura, stressed yesterday before the Security Council that “the time has come for Morocco to explain and detail its proposal for autonomy,” something he said he had “reiterated respectfully but firmly” to the Government of Rabat.
In his presentation yesterday before the Council behind closed doors, to which the media had access today, De Mistura showed his impatience for the blocking of the peace process between Morocco and the Saharawi independence group Polisario Front, and confessed that he even proposed a partition of the Saharawi territory between the north, which would be for Morocco, and the south, which would become an independent state, but he regretted having reaped a refusal by both parties.
Exposition of the UN envoy
He dedicated a large part of his exhibition to exploring the idea of Moroccan autonomy -categorically rejected by the Polisario-, and said that it has worked in places of the world as different as Greenland, Upper Adige or Scotland, but it remains to know what Morocco proposes for the Sahara beyond “a three-page plan” exposed in 2007.
That plan,” said De Mistura, has created expectations “and even the right to better understand what it means,” a right shared by the people affected but also by the Security Council and the UN General Secretariat, and even by the countries that in one way or another have supported it as a principle.
“It must be explained how this option can provide some kind of worthy form of self-determination for the people of the Sahara, and under what modality,” De Mistura insisted before the Council, before recalling that Morocco “must provide details of its vision.”
It’s almost 50 years since the beginning of the conflict
De Mistura concluded his speech by recalling that in 2025 it will be 50 years since the beginning of the conflict and that, if from now until six months there is no progress between the parties – that they do not even sit at the same table – it would be legitimate to ask about the involvement that the United Nations must continue to have in the process.
The UN sent a mission to the Sahara in 1991 (Minurso) in order to organize a self-determination referendum, but later Morocco put obstacles to that referendum and since 2007 has only proposed an imprecise offer of autonomy.
Since then, the Minurso has been left with the only task of observing the ceasefire, sporadically broken by both parties.
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