Pope slams Harris and Trump on anti-life stances, urges Catholics to vote for ‘lesser evil’

Pope slams Harris and Trump on anti-life stances, urges Catholics to vote for ‘lesser evil’
Democratic presidential nominee and US Vice President Kamala Harris. (Reuters)
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Updated 13 September 2024
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Pope slams Harris and Trump on anti-life stances, urges Catholics to vote for ‘lesser evil’

Pope slams Harris and Trump on anti-life stances, urges Catholics to vote for ‘lesser evil’

ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE: Pope Francis on Friday slammed both US presidential candidates for what he called anti-life policies on abortion and migration, and he advised American Catholics to choose who they think is the “lesser evil” in the upcoming US elections.

“Both are against life, be it the one who kicks out migrants, or be it the one who kills babies,” Francis said.

The Argentine Jesuit was asked to provide counsel to American Catholic voters during an airborne news conference while he flew back to Rome from his four-nation tour through Asia. Francis stressed that he is not an American and would not be voting.

Neither Republican candidate Donald Trump nor the Democratic candidate, Kamala Harris, was mentioned by name.

But Francis nevertheless expressed himself in stark terms when asked to weigh in on their positions on two hot-button issues in the US election — abortion and migration — that are also of major concern to the Catholic Church.

Francis has made the plight of migrants a priority of his pontificate and speaks out emphatically and frequently about it. While strongly upholding church teaching forbidding abortion, Francis has not emphasized church doctrine as much as his predecessors.

Francis said migration is a right described in Scripture and that anyone who does not follow the Biblical call to welcome the stranger is committing a “grave sin.”

He was also blunt in speaking about abortion. “To have an abortion is to kill a human being. You may like the word or not, but it’s killing,” he said. “We have to see this clearly.”

Asked what voters should do at the polls, Francis recalled the civic duty to vote.

“One should vote, and choose the lesser evil,” he said. “Who is the lesser evil, the woman or man? I don’t know.

“Everyone in their conscience should think and do it,” he said.

It’s not the first time Francis has weighed in on a US election. In the run-up to the 2016 election, Francis was asked about Trump’s plan to build a wall at the US-Mexico border. Francis declared then that anyone who builds a wall to keep out migrants “is not Christian.”

In responding Friday, Francis recalled that he celebrated Mass at the US-Mexico border and “there were so many shoes of the migrants who ended up badly there.”

Trump pledges massive deportations, just as he did in his first White House bid, when there was a vast gulf between his ambitions and the legal, financial and political realities of such an undertaking.

The US bishops conference, for its part, has called abortion the “preeminent priority” for American Catholics in its published voter advice. Harris has strongly defended abortion rights and has emphasized support for reinstating a federal right to abortion.

In his comments, the pope added: “On abortion, science says that a month from conception, all the organs of a human being are already there, all of them. Performing an abortion is killing a human being. Whether you like the word or not, this is killing. You can’t say the church is closed because it does not allow abortion. The church does not allow abortion because it’s killing. It is murder.”

However, cells are only beginning the process of developing organs in the earliest weeks of pregnancy. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says that by 13 weeks, all major organs have formed. For example, cardiac tissue starts to form in the first two months — initially a tube that only later evolves into the four chambers that define a heart.

 


Titan sub disaster tied to ignored warnings and weak oversight, Coast Guard says

Titan sub disaster tied to ignored warnings and weak oversight, Coast Guard says
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Titan sub disaster tied to ignored warnings and weak oversight, Coast Guard says

Titan sub disaster tied to ignored warnings and weak oversight, Coast Guard says
  • The Coast Guard report found the company’s safety procedures were “critically flawed”
  • Jason Neubauer, with the Marine Board of Investigation, said that the findings will help prevent future tragedies

MAINE, USA: The 2023 Titan submersible disaster that killed five people could have been prevented, the US Coast Guard said Tuesday, but OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush ignored safety warnings, design flaws and crucial oversight that could have resulted in criminal charges — had he survived.

The Titan suffered a catastrophic implosion as it descended to the wreck of the Titanic, sparking a dayslong search in the North Atlantic off Canada that grabbed international headlines. The Coast Guard convened its highest level of investigation in the aftermath, and the disaster has led to lawsuits and calls for tighter regulation of the developing private deep sea expedition industry.

The Titan was owned by OceanGate, a private company based in Washington state. The Coast Guard report found the company’s safety procedures were “critically flawed” and cited “glaring disparities” between safety protocols and actual practices.

Preventing the next Titan disaster

Jason Neubauer, with the Marine Board of Investigation, said that the findings will help prevent future tragedies.

“There is a need for stronger oversight and clear options for operators who are exploring new

concepts outside of the existing regulatory framework,” he said in a statement.

OceanGate suspended operations in July 2023. A spokesperson for the company said it has been wound down and was fully cooperating with the investigation.

“We again offer our deepest condolences to the families of those who died on June 18, 2023, and to all those impacted by the tragedy,” said the spokesperson, Christian Hammond.

Coast Guard report describes ‘red flags’ at OceanGate

Throughout the report, which spans more than 300 pages, investigators repeatedly point to OceanGate’s culture of downplaying, ignoring and even falsifying key safety information to improve its reputation and evade scrutiny from regulators. OceanGate ignored “red flags” and had a “toxic workplace culture,” while its mission was hindered by lack of domestic and international framework for submersible operations, the report says.

Numerous OceanGate employees have come forward in the two years since the implosion to support those claims. The report says firings of senior staff members and the looming threat of being fired were used to dissuade employees and contractors from expressing safety concerns.

“By strategically creating and exploiting regulatory confusion and oversight challenges, OceanGate was ultimately able to operate TITAN completely outside of the established deep-sea protocols,” the report found.

The Titan’s inadequacies

Investigators found that the submersible’s design, certification, maintenance and inspection process were all inadequate. Coast Guard officials noted at the start of last year’s hearing that the submersible had not been independently reviewed, as is standard practice.

Mounting financial pressures in 2023 led to a decision by OceanGate to store the Titan submersible outdoors over the Canadian winter, where its hull was exposed to temperature fluctuations that compromised the integrity of the vessel, the report said.

The Marine Board concluded that Rush, OceanGate’s CEO, “exhibited negligence” that contributed to the deaths of four people. If Rush had survived, the case would have been handed off to the US Department of Justice and he may have been subject to criminal charges, the board said.

The Marine Board said one challenge of the investigation was that “significant amounts” of video footage evidence that had been captured by witnesses was not subject to its subpoena authority because the witnesses weren’t US citizens.

The victims of the Titan disaster

In addition to Rush, the implosion killed French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, British adventurer Hamish Harding and two members of a prominent Pakistani family, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood.

The family of Nargeolet, a veteran French undersea explorer known as “Mr. Titanic,” filed a more than $50 million lawsuit last year that said the crew experienced “terror and mental anguish” before the disaster. The lawsuit accused OceanGate of gross negligence.

The Titan’s final dive

Titan had been making voyages to the Titanic site since 2021. The Titan’s final dive came on

June 18, 2023, a Sunday morning when the submersible would lose contact with its support vessel about two hours later. The submersible was reported overdue that afternoon, and ships, planes and equipment were rushed to the scene about 435 miles (700 kilometers) south of St. John’s, Newfoundland.

Wreckage of the Titan would subsequently be found on the ocean floor about 330 yards (300 meters) off the bow of the Titanic, Coast Guard officials said.

The Marine Board of Investigation held several days of hearings about the implosion in October 2024. During those hearings, the lead engineer of the submersible said he felt pressured to get the vessel ready to dive and refused to pilot it for a journey several years earlier.

Tony Nissen told the board that he had told Rush: “I’m not getting in it.”


South Africa urges more countries to stand up to Israel’s ‘genocidal activities’

A Palestinian mourns a relative, who was killed while seeking aid at the Zikim crossing, ahead of their funeral.
A Palestinian mourns a relative, who was killed while seeking aid at the Zikim crossing, ahead of their funeral.
Updated 33 min 3 sec ago
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South Africa urges more countries to stand up to Israel’s ‘genocidal activities’

A Palestinian mourns a relative, who was killed while seeking aid at the Zikim crossing, ahead of their funeral.

PRETORIA: More countries must stand up to Israel and recognize a Palestinian state to stop “the genocidal activities,” South Africa’s Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola told AFP in an interview.

Pretoria has been leading calls against Israel’s action in Gaza, bringing a case before the International Court of Justice in December 2023, arguing that its war in the territory amounted to genocide.

As some of Israel’s allies “are now also saying, no, this can’t continue, it means that it is bringing us closer and closer to the Israel regime to stop the genocidal activities,” Lamola said.


Bangladesh to hold elections in February 2026: Yunus

People watch Muhammad Yunus, leader of Bangladeshi interim government, as he appears on a screen while reading July Declaration.
People watch Muhammad Yunus, leader of Bangladeshi interim government, as he appears on a screen while reading July Declaration.
Updated 05 August 2025
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Bangladesh to hold elections in February 2026: Yunus

People watch Muhammad Yunus, leader of Bangladeshi interim government, as he appears on a screen while reading July Declaration.
  • Yunus had earlier said elections would be held in April, but key political parties have been demanding he hold them earlier, and before Ramadan

DHAKA: Bangladesh will hold elections in February 2026, interim leader Muhammad Yunus said Tuesday, the first polls since a mass uprising overthrew the government last year.

“On behalf of the interim government, I will write a letter to the Chief Election Commissioner requesting that the election be arranged before Ramadan in February 2026,” Yunus said in a broadcast on the one-year anniversary of the ousting of prime minister Sheikh Hasina.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Yunus, 85, is leading the caretaker government as its chief adviser until elections, and has said he will step down after the vote.

“We will step into the final and most important phase after delivering this speech to you, and that is the transfer of power to an elected government,” he said.

Yunus had earlier said elections would be held in April, but key political parties have been demanding he hold them earlier, and before the Islamic holy month of Ramadan in the Muslim-majority nation of 170 million people.

“I urge you all to pray for us so that we can hold a fair and smooth election, enabling all citizens to move forward successfully in building a ‘New Bangladesh’,” he added.

“On behalf of the government, we will extend all necessary support to ensure that the election is free, peaceful and celebratory in spirit.”


Frequent disasters expose climate risks to infrastructure in South Asia

Frequent disasters expose climate risks to infrastructure in South Asia
Updated 05 August 2025
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Frequent disasters expose climate risks to infrastructure in South Asia

Frequent disasters expose climate risks to infrastructure in South Asia
  • The flooding of the Bhotekoshi River on July 8 also killed nine people
  • Another smaller flood in the area on July 30 damaged roads and structures

Katmandu: Floods that damaged hydropower dams in Nepal and destroyed the main bridge connecting the country to China show the vulnerability of infrastructure and need for smart rebuilding in a region bearing the brunt of a warming planet, experts say.

The flooding of the Bhotekoshi River on July 8 also killed nine people and damaged an inland container depot that was being built to support increasing trade between the two countries. The 10 damaged hydropower facilities, including three under construction, have a combined capacity that could power 600,000 South Asian homes.

Another smaller flood in the area on July 30 damaged roads and structures, but caused less overall destruction. Elsewhere in the Himalayas, flash floods swept away roads, homes and hotels on Tuesday in northern India, killing at least four people and leaving many others trapped under debris, officials said.

The Himalayan region, which crosses Nepal and several nearby countries including India, is especially vulnerable to heavy rains, floods and landslides because the area is warming up faster than the rest of the world due to human-caused climate change. Climate experts say the increasing frequency of extreme weather has changed the playbook for assessing infrastructure risks while also increasing the need for smart rebuilding plans.

“The statistics of the past no longer apply for the future,” said John Pomeroy, a hydrologist at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada. “The risk that goes into building a bridge or other infrastructure is generally based on historical observations of past risk, but this is no longer useful because future risk is different and often much higher.”

While damage estimates from the July floods in the Rasuwa region are still being calculated, past construction costs give a sense of the financial toll. The Sino-Nepal Friendship Bridge alone, for example, took $68 million to rebuild after it was destroyed by a 2015 earthquake that ravaged Nepal.

The latest disaster has also stoked fears of long-lasting economic damage in a region north of the capital city Katmandu that spent years rebuilding after the 2015 quake. Nepali government officials estimate that $724 million worth of trade with China is conducted over the bridge each year, and that has come to a standstill.

“Thank God there wasn’t much damage to local villages, but the container depot and bridges have been completely destroyed. This has severely affected workers, hotel operators, laborers, and truck drivers who rely on cross-border trade for their livelihoods,” said Kaami Tsering, a local government official, in a phone interview with The Associated Press.

Among those affected is Urken Tamang, a 50-year-old parking attendant at the depot who has been out of work for several weeks. A small tea shop he runs nearby with his family has also suffered.

“We’ve been unlucky,” said Tamang, a former farmer who sold his land and changed jobs when work on the depot began. He added: “The whole area was severely damaged by the 2015 earthquake, and just when life was slowly returning to normal, this devastating flood struck.”

Disasters show need for climate-resilient infrastructure

The Nepal floods are the latest in a series of disasters in South Asia during this year’s monsoon season. Research has shown that extreme weather has become more frequent in the region including heat waves, heavy rains and melting glaciers.

Climate experts said smart planning and rebuilding in climate-vulnerable regions must include accounting for multiple risks, installing early warning systems, preparing local communities for disasters and, when needed, relocating infrastructure.

“What we have to avoid is the insanity of rebuilding after a natural disaster in the same place where it occurred and where we know it will occur again at even higher probability,” said Pomeroy, the Canadian hydrologist. “That’s a very poor decision. Unfortunately, that’s what most countries do.”

Before rebuilding in Rasuwa, Nepal government officials need to assess overall risks, including those due to extreme weather and climate change, said Bipin Dulal, an analyst at Katmandu-based International Center for Integrated Mountain Development.

The bridge connecting the two countries was rebuilt to better withstand earthquakes after it was destroyed in 2015, but it appears that officials didn’t properly account for the risk of flooding as intense as what occurred in early July, Dulal said.

“We have to see what the extreme risk scenarios can be and we should rebuild in a way in which the infrastructure can handle those extremes,” said Dulal.

Dulal said that large building projects in South Asia typically undertake environmental impact assessments that don’t adequately factor in the risks of floods and other disasters. The center is developing a multi-hazard risk assessment framework that it hopes will be adopted by planners and builders in the region to better account for the dangers of extreme weather.

Resilient structures can save billions in the long run

In 2024 alone, there were 167 disasters in Asia — including storms, floods, heat waves and earthquakes — which was the most of any continent, according to the Emergency Events Database maintained by the University of Louvain, Belgium. These led to losses of over $32 billion, the researchers found.

“These disasters are all wake-up calls. These risks are real,” said Ramesh Subramaniam, global director of programs and strategy at the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure.

A CDRI analysis found that $124 billion worth of Nepal’s infrastructure is vulnerable to the impacts of climate-driven disasters, creating the potential for hundreds of millions of dollars in annual losses if the country doesn’t invest in resiliency.

“Investing a relatively smaller figure now would prevent the loss of these enormous sums of damages,” said Subramaniam.

Subramaniam said that most climate investments are directed toward mitigation, such as building clean energy projects and trying to reduce the amount of planet-heating gases being released. But given extreme weather damage already occurring, investing in adapting to global warming is also equally important, he said.

“I think countries are learning and adaptation is becoming a standard feature in their annual planning,” he said.

Global efforts to prepare for and deal with such losses include a climate loss and damage fund set up by the United Nations in 2023. The fund currently has $348 million available, which the UN warns is only a fraction of the yearly need for economic damage related to human-caused climate change. The World Bank and Asian Development Bank have also provided loans or grants to build climate-resilient projects.

In Nepal’s recently flood-ravaged region, Tsering, the local government official, said the repeated disasters have taken more than a financial toll on residents.

“Even though the river has now returned to a normal flow, the fear remains,” he said. “People will always worry that something like this could happen again.”


Ukraine reopens its Danube canal after explosion, analyst says

Ukraine reopens its Danube canal after explosion, analyst says
Updated 05 August 2025
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Ukraine reopens its Danube canal after explosion, analyst says

Ukraine reopens its Danube canal after explosion, analyst says
  • Ukraine had been transporting grain on the Bystre and the Danube as an alternative route
  • The consultancy said in a statement that Ukraine would allow vessels with a draught of up to 4.5 meters to transit the canal

KYIV: Ukraine’s Seaport Authority will from Wednesday reopen the Bystre Canal at the mouth of the Danube, closed since a dredger exploded in late July, analyst ASAP Agri said on Tuesday.

Ukraine had been transporting grain on the Bystre and the Danube as an alternative route for its exports while access to its Black Sea ports was limited in the first year after Russia’s invasion in 2022. Since the ports were unblocked in 2023, Ukraine’s use of the Danube has declined sharply.

The consultancy said in a statement that Ukraine would allow vessels with a draught of up to 4.5 meters to transit the canal.

“The move is expected to reduce disbursement costs for shipowners and support negotiations on Danube-origin freight by narrowing the bid/offer spread,” said Pavel Lysenko, analyst at ASAP Agri.

The Seaport Authority declined to comment.

It said last month it had closed the Bystre after a dredger exploded on 23 July, without giving any explanation for the blast. Traffic was diverted through the Romanian Sulina channel.

ASAP Agri said the cost to shipowners of using Sulina was higher and many had raised their freight quotes for Danube shipments to offset losses.

“With Bystre back in service, market participants expect a partial recovery in Danube freight flows as negotiations become more balanced,” it said.