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Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, said late Wednesday that he was considering resigning after a judge opened an investigation into whether Mr. Sánchez’s wife had abused her position to help friends win public contracts. The development stunned Spain and threw the political future of perhaps Europe’s most prominent progressive leader into doubt only months after he defied widespread expectations by putting together a fractious coalition and securing a second term in power. “I need to stop and think,” Mr. Sánchez wrote in a long letter published on his X social media account on Wednesday evening. He canceled all political engagements until Monday to decide, he said, whether he “should continue to lead the government or renounce this honor.”Recently, Mr. Sánchez had seemed to overcome another significant obstacle by assuring that the Catalan independent movement would support his coalition, making his second term in government seem sturdy.

Persons: Spain’s, Pedro Sánchez, Sánchez’s, Spain, Mr, Sánchez

Pope Francis, who reluctantly canceled his trip to the annual United Nations climate summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, because of a lung infection, sought on Saturday to lend his voice to the world’s destitute facing the brunt of climate disruption. In an address written by the pope and delivered at the summit by the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Francis assured the world, “I am with you, because time is short.” He wrote that the world, more than ever, faced environmental devastation that offended God and “greatly endangers all human beings, especially the most vulnerable in our midst, and threatens to unleash a conflict between generations.”Francis, 86, in his decade-long pontificate, has elevated stewardship of the environment to a top priority of the church. In “Laudate Deum,” a letter on humanity’s obligations to the environment issued in October, Francis specifically called for tangible solutions at the Dubai meeting, which, at the time, he expected to attend. But the pope’s health would not permit it. He was prevented not only from delivering the speech in person, but also from participating in many bilateral meetings, including with leaders of small and vulnerable nations whose plights he had hoped to amplify.

Persons: Pope Francis, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Francis, ”, “, ” Francis Locations: United Nations, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

☆ Pope’s Critics Feel the Sting After His Patience Runs Out
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-29 | by ( Jason Horowitz | More About Jason Horowitz | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

As Pope Francis smiled warmly at the circus performers spinning and flipping in front of him at his weekly general audience in the Vatican on Wednesday, he looked every bit the grandfatherly figure who has for the last decade sought to make the church a kinder, gentler and more inclusive place. Except for the people feeling his wrath. There is a sense among some Vatican analysts and conservatives that Francis, who is suffering from a lung inflammation that forced him to pass off his readings at the event and to cancel an important trip to Dubai this weekend, is increasingly focusing his depleted energies on settling scores and cleaning house. While some have wondered whether his ailing health might be driving his actions, Francis, who from the beginning said he didn’t expect to live long in the job, has often moved with urgency. And when it comes to personnel moves, analysts said, it has always been thus.

Persons: Pope Francis, Francis, Benedict XVI Locations: Dubai, United States

Almost as soon as Pope Francis became the head of the Roman Catholic church in 2013, Raymond Burke, an American cardinal, emerged as his leading critic from within the church, becoming a de facto antipope for frustrated traditionalists who believed Francis was diluting doctrine. Francis frequently demoted and stripped the American cleric of influence, but this month, the pope apparently finally had enough, according to one high-ranking Vatican official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Francis told a meeting of high-ranking Vatican officials that he intended to throw the cardinal out of his Vatican-subsidized apartment and deprive him of his salary as a retired cardinal. The newspaper’s report comes only weeks after Francis removed another vocal conservative critic, Joseph Strickland, the bishop of Tyler, Texas, after a Vatican investigation into the governance of his diocese. “If this is accurate, it is an atrocity that must be opposed,” Bishop Strickland said in a post on the social media platform X on Monday.

Persons: Pope Francis, Raymond Burke, Francis, Cardinal Burke, Francis ., Joseph Strickland, ” Bishop Strickland, ” Organizations: Roman Catholic, Vatican Locations: Italian, Tyler , Texas, “

The family of Avigail Idan, a small child whose parents were murdered in front of their children by Hamas militants at a kibbutz during the Oct. 7 assault, hoped that they would be able to celebrate her fourth birthday with her on Friday. “I find myself barely breathing through the last 24 hours,” her aunt, Tal Idan, said after the announcement of the agreement. Image An undated photo (from left) of Avigail Idan, Roy Idan, Michael Idan, Amelia Idan, and Smadar Idan. And in the Gaza Strip, Palestinians who have endured nearly seven weeks of intense airstrikes waited anxiously for the truce. Several international humanitarian organizations said the four-day cease-fire window was too tight to address the dire situation.

Persons: Mohammad Abu Salmiya, “, Tal Idan, ”, Avigail, Abigail ”, Idan, Roy Idan, Michael Idan, Amelia Idan, Smadar, Walaa Tanji, Tanji, Nagham, ” Shadi Hijazi, Catherine Russell Organizations: Al, Shifa, U.S ., West Bank, Qatar, UNICEF, . Security Locations: U.S, Nablus, Gaza

☆ Pedro Sánchez Secures New Term to Lead a Divided Spain
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-16 | by ( Jason Horowitz | More About Jason Horowitz | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Pedro Sánchez, the Spanish progressive leader, secured a second term as prime minister on Thursday after a polarizing agreement granting amnesty to Catalan separatists gave him enough support in Parliament to govern with a fragile coalition over an increasingly divided nation. With 179 votes, barely more than the 176 usually required to govern, Mr. Sánchez, who has been prime minister since 2018, won a chance to extend the progressive agenda, often successful economic policies and pro-European Union posture of his Socialist Party. The outcome was the result of months of haggling since an inconclusive July election in which neither the conservative Popular Party, which came in first, or the Socialist Party, which came in second, secured enough support to govern alone. But the fractures in Spain were less about left versus right and more about the country’s very geographic integrity and identity. Mr. Sánchez’s proposed amnesties have breathed new life into a secession issue that last emerged in 2017, when separatists held an illegal referendum over independence in the prosperous northeastern region of Catalonia.

Persons: Pedro Sánchez, Sánchez, Sánchez’s Organizations: Socialist Party, Popular Party Locations: Spanish, European, Spain, Catalonia

☆ Texas Bishop Loudly Critical of Pope Francis Is Removed
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-11 | by ( Jason Horowitz | More About Jason Horowitz | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas, one of the loudest American voices against Pope Francis within his own church, recently responded to a Vatican investigation into his leadership and talk of his potential resignation with a public letter stating, “I cannot resign as Bishop of Tyler because that would be me abandoning the flock.” He added he would step aside only if the pope removed him. “The Holy Father has relieved from the pastoral governance of the Diocese of Tyler,” Bishop Strickland, the Vatican said on Saturday in a routine statement of global staffing changes. It added that Francis had appointed Bishop Joe S. Vásquez of Austin as the apostolic administrator of the sede vacante, or temporarily vacant seat, of Tyler. Supporters of Francis, who considered Bishop Strickland’s frequent salvos against the pope beyond the pale and indicative of his extremism, were likely to welcome the firing. But Bishop Strickland, 65 and well below the age of automatic resignation, tested the limits of that tolerance.

Persons: Bishop Joseph Strickland, Pope Francis, “, Tyler, Francis, Bishop Strickland’s, Francis ’, ultraconservatives, ” Bishop Strickland, Bishop Joe S, Bishop Strickland Locations: Tyler , Texas, United States, Tyler, Austin

Pope Francis, who has made reaching out to L.G.B.T.Q. Catholics a hallmark of his papacy, has made clear that transgender people can be baptized, serve as godparents and be witnesses at church weddings, furthering his vision of a more inclusive church. The pope’s embrace of transgender people’s participation in the church was revealed in a Vatican document that he approved on Oct. 31 and that was posted online Wednesday. The decision “signals Pope Francis’ desire for a pastorally focused approach to L.G.B.T.Q.+ issues is taking hold,” he added. The immediate public response from American bishops, who have taken more restrictive stances on transgender issues, was generally muted.

Persons: Pope Francis, ” Francis DeBernardo, Pope Francis ’, ” Organizations: Roman Catholic Church, New Ways Ministry, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Locations: Maryland

☆ Deal Granting Amnesty to Separatists Sets Off Turmoil in Spain
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-09 | by ( Jason Horowitz | More About Jason Horowitz | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez of Spain sealed a deal to extend amnesty to Catalan separatists on Thursday in exchange for their political support, likely allowing him to stay in power but causing turmoil throughout Spain, doubts in Europe and questions about the country’s stability. Mr. Sánchez, 51, who is currently acting as a caretaker prime minister after inconclusive snap elections he called in July, backed the amnesties related to an illegal referendum that shook Spain in 2017 to receive the critical support of the Junts party, which supports independence from Spain for the northern region of Catalonia. With their support, Mr. Sánchez will likely avoid new elections, win parliamentary backing for another stint as prime minister and solidify his place in the European Union as its standard-bearer for progressive politics.

Persons: Pedro Sánchez, Sánchez Organizations: Union Locations: Spain, Europe, Catalonia

☆ Italy Misses a #MeToo Moment in Meloni’s Breakup
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-09 | by ( Jason Horowitz | More About Jason Horowitz | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Since Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s first female prime minister, announced over social media last month that she was dumping her longtime boyfriend, Italians have hardly stopped talking about it. Were the leaks politically motivated, as Ms. Meloni has insinuated? Had Ms. Meloni’s Dear Giambruno letter humanized her as an Italian Everywoman, or reinforced her tough, no-nonsense reputation? Was the breakup bad or good for her political career? Far less attention has been paid to Mr. Giambruno’s behavior, which the public discourse has taken for granted as part of a culture of sexism and harassment that is commonplace for women at work in Italy.

Persons: Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s, Andrea Giambruno, Meloni, Meloni’s Locations: Italian, Italy

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy on Tuesday heralded an agreement she had struck with Albania, a non-European Union nation, to outsource the processing and containment of migrants as a breakthrough for one of the continent’s most defining challenges. “I believe it could become a model of cooperation between E.U. countries in managing migration flows,” Ms. Meloni told the Rome-based daily newspaper Il Messaggero. “I think this agreement features a bold European spirit.”But Italian politicians caught by surprise by Ms. Meloni’s announcement in Rome on Monday questioned whether the agreement — struck earlier this week with the nation across the Adriatic Sea — was legal, ethical, practical or even real. “Before further commenting, we need to understand what exactly they want to do,” Anitta Hipper, a spokeswoman for the European Commission, said on Tuesday.

Persons: Giorgia Meloni, “, Ms, Meloni, Anitta Hipper Organizations: European Union, E.U, European Commission Locations: Italy, Albania, European, Rome

A monthlong meeting convened by Pope Francis to determine the future of the Roman Catholic Church ended Saturday night with a document that said it was “urgent” that women have a larger role but postponed discussion of major issues such as ordaining women as deacons and failed to address outreach to L.G.B.T.Q.+ Catholics. Vatican officials instead sought to emphasize common ground during the meeting, which was characterized by liberals and conservatives alike as a potential culmination of Francis’ 10-year pontificate and the vehicle through which he might make changes. Instead, it echoed another characteristic of Francis’ tenure: kicking the can on major issues as he sought to build deeper support through the global church. After the conclusion of the meeting, called the Synod on Synodality, which Francis attended and had about 450 participants (of which 365 could vote), Vatican officials said they had decided to cut sources of tension — “divergences,” as the meeting called them.

Persons: Pope Francis, Francis ’, Francis Organizations: Roman Catholic Church, Vatican Locations: Synodality

It didn’t really matter what the oil painting and antiques vendors hawked. “He had this project to build the largest collection in Italy,” said Giuseppe De Gregorio, a televendor near Naples who sold thousands of paintings to Mr. Berlusconi. “He didn’t want important paintings. He wanted paintings. It was enough if they were painted with oil on a canvas.”

Persons: Silvio Berlusconi, ”, Giuseppe De Gregorio, Berlusconi, “ Locations: Milan, Italy, Naples

☆ Clams Ruled This Town Until the Crabs Moved In
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-24 | by ( Jason Horowitz | More About Jason Horowitz | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Wearing waders, he boarded his boat and motored to the lagoon with scores of other fishermen to rake the clam gardens that for decades have transformed this sleepy Italian village off the Po River Delta into a bivalve boomtown. As the sun rose, Mr. Genari, a leader of the local fishing cooperative, poured his first haul of clams into the basin of a metal sorting machine. “Opened, opened, opened,” Mr. Genari said, as he sifted through shells and avoided the murderous crabs snapping at his fingers. The killers had, he said, laid waste to the baby clams. The clams will be gone.”

Persons: Massimo Genari, Genari, “, ” Mr, ” Locations: Goro

☆ How Do We Feel About Global Warming? It’s Called Eco-Anxiety.
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-16 | by ( Jason Horowitz | More About Jason Horowitz | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Italy was in the grip of extreme heat waves, hellish wildfires and biblical downpours, and a nerve-wracked young Italian woman wept as she stood in a theater to tell the country’s environment minister about her fears of a climatically apocalyptic future. “I personally suffer from eco-anxiety,” Giorgia Vasaperna, 27, said, her eyes welling and her hands fidgeting, at a children’s film festival in July. “I have a responsibility toward all of you,” he said, visibly choked up. “I have a responsibility toward my grandchildren.”Europe is a continent on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Italians are frazzled as a summer of incinerating heat waves lingers and fear mounts over the return of hailstones the size of handballs.

Persons: “, Giorgia, welling, fidgeting, Gilberto Pichetto Fratin, ” Locations: Italy, Europe, Greece

☆ In Rome, It’s Luxury vs. Squalor
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-14 | by ( Jason Horowitz | More About Jason Horowitz | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Hollywood and Italian celebrities, brand ambassadors, politicians and influencers sipped from rivers of Champagne on the rooftop. “When I became the mayor, the city was, they said, in decline,” said Mr. Rutelli, who served from 1993 to 2001. Around him, decked-out revelers spoke about the dawn of a new Dolce Vita era in Rome, prompting some Romans to suggest the bubbly had gone to their heads. But Mr. Rutelli insisted that Romans weren’t constitutionally opposed to change and progress. But that landmark was surrounded by a deep ditch filled with orange fencing and languishing construction workers in the future — perhaps distant future — site of a modern promenade.

Persons: influencers, “, Rutelli, Richard Meier, ”, revelers, Mariani Organizations: “ Roma Locations: Hollywood, Champagne, ”, Pacis, American, Rome

☆ When It Comes to China, Pope Francis Keeps Criticism in Check
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-04 | by ( Jason Horowitz | More About Jason Horowitz | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

While Mongolia’s economy relies heavily on its two giant neighbors, and especially China, it has pursued a diplomatic strategy called the “third neighbor” which seeks to reinforce political independence and cultivate allies and investment partners from countries including Japan, South Korea, Germany and the United States. “It is a very real thing here,” said Odbayar Erdenetsogt, the foreign policy adviser to Mongolia’s president. But that didn’t change the fact that the country’s priority was the best relations possible with its two actual neighbors: “Our president is very good friends with Putin. He is very close and very good friends with Xi Jinping. We have to have that connection.”Asked whether that relationship could help the Vatican’s diplomacy with either nation, but especially China, Mr. Erdenetsogt offered a diplomatic reality check.

Persons: Dostoyevsky, “, ” Francis, —, ”, Odbayar Erdenetsogt, Putin, Xi Jinping, Erdenetsogt Locations: Mongolia, Mongolian, — Russia, China, Japan, South Korea, Germany, United States

☆ A Nation With Few Catholics Gives Pope a Welcome Fit for an Emperor
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-02 | by ( Jason Horowitz | More About Jason Horowitz | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Perhaps the most famous of the merchant visitors to Mongolia, Marco Polo, wrote in his 13th-century “Travels” about how Kublai Khan, a Mongolian emperor and grandson of Genghis Khan, put down a revolt by “a baptized Christian.” After having the rebel rolled up in a carpet that “was dragged all over the place with such violence that he died,” the emperor made a peace offering to the Christians. He told them, Marco Polo wrote, that the “the cross of your God did the right thing by not helping” the rebel and later suggested that the pope send 100 wise Christians to his land with the potential of his own conversion, “so there will be more Christians here than there are in your part of the world.”It did not shake out that way. Buddhism took hold, and Catholicism struggled. Centuries later, in the 1920s, the Vatican sought to establish mission structures in the country, but Mongolia fell under the Soviet sphere and Communism prevailed for the next 70 years. As religion was suppressed, atheism grew.

Persons: Marco Polo, Kublai Khan, Genghis Khan, “, ” Locations: Mongolia, Mongolian

☆ In Visit to Tiny Flock in Mongolia, Pope Has an Eye on Russia and China
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-31 | by ( Jason Horowitz | More About Jason Horowitz | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Pope Francis has long expressed a desire to visit Russia and China in hopes of healing the church’s historical rifts and ensuring the faith’s future in the populous East. On Friday, he came very close, landing in Mongolia, a country sandwiched between the two geopolitical giants, with a minuscule Catholic population that no pope has visited before. “The inhabitants are few,” Francis acknowledged in brief remarks on the plane to Mongolia. But the country, which at times seems so vast as not to end, is also a place where the “culture is great,” he said. On Sunday, he called the trip a “much-desired visit which will be an opportunity to embrace a church that is small in number, but vibrant in faith and great in charity.”But many observers in and out of the church are wondering why Francis, who is 86 and often uses a wheelchair, traveled more than 5,000 miles to visit fewer than 1,500 Catholics, in a geographically vast nation where a good chunk of the largely nomadic population of 3.3 million knows very little about him, according to a pollster.

Persons: Pope Francis, ” Francis, ”, Francis Locations: Russia, China, Mongolia

ROME — Pope Francis has expressed in unusually sharp terms his dismay at “a very strong, organized, reactionary attitude” opposing him within the U.S. Roman Catholic Church, one that fixates on social issues like abortion and sexuality to the exclusion of caring for the poor and the environment. The pope lamented the “backwardness” of some American conservatives who he said insist on a narrow, outdated and unchanging vision. They refuse, he said, to accept the full breadth of the Church’s mission and the need for changes in doctrine over time. “I would like to remind these people that backwardness is useless,” Francis, 86, told a group of fellow Jesuits early this month in a meeting at World Youth Day celebrations in Lisbon. In other words, ideologies replace faith.”His words became public this week, when a transcript of the conversation was published by the Vatican-vetted Jesuit journal La Civiltà Cattolica.

Persons: ROME — Pope Francis, “, ” Francis, ” Organizations: . Roman Catholic Church, Vatican Locations: Lisbon, “, Cattolica

Laura Marqués has never been much interested in soccer. She doesn’t watch the Spanish league games or know the names of the players. She didn’t even watch the Spanish women’s team win the World Cup final this month. “We’ve been talking about soccer a lot this week,” Ms. Marqués, a 26-year-old lawyer, said as she walked in downtown Zaragoza with a friend. Some commentators have taken to calling it Spain’s #MeToo moment.

Persons: Laura Marqués, “ We’ve, ” Ms, Marqués, ”, “, Luis Rubiales, Jennifer Hermoso Organizations: Spanish, Spanish women’s Locations: Zaragoza, Spain

Spanish prosecutors said on Monday that they had opened an investigation into whether Luis Rubiales, the president of the country’s soccer federation, could be charged with committing an act of sexual aggression after he kissed one of the female team’s players on the lips when they won the World Cup this month. Opposition has steadily grown in response to Mr. Rubiales’s conduct and his strident defense of it, and the group he heads, known formally as Royal Spanish Football Federation, has found itself under increasing pressure to take action. The group was meeting later Monday to discuss the issue. Mr. Rubiales was shown on video after the World Cup final in Sydney on Aug. 20 kissing one of the team’s star players, Jennifer Hermoso, and although he apologized the day after, he then took a defiant stand later in the week. He said Ms. Hermoso had lifted him off his feet and “moved me close to her body,” accusing his critics of “false feminism” and saying he was the victim of “social assassination.” Ms. Hermoso countered in a statement, “At no time did I consent to the kiss that he gave me.”

Persons: Luis Rubiales, Rubiales’s, Rubiales, Jennifer Hermoso, Hermoso, “, ”, ” Ms Organizations: Opposition, Royal Spanish Football Federation Locations: Sydney

☆ Ukrainians Dismayed as Pope Declines to Chide Russia at World Youth Day
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-05 | by ( Jason Horowitz | More About Jason Horowitz | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

But for those hoping that he might take up their cause at World Youth Day, there was disappointment, just as there was last year when Francis delivered a prayer for peace that consecrated both Russia and Ukraine to Mary, leaving many Ukrainians feeling lumped in with their aggressors. “He said he was impotent in front of this evil,” Father Demush said after the meeting, adding that the pope had expressed frustration at being unable to stop the violence. Mostly, he said, the pope listened intensely as the young Ukrainian pilgrims spoke about their suffering in the war and the friends and family they had lost. Dmytro Bohak, 19, said he had told the pope about injuries he suffered while driving ambulances and other vehicles into Ukraine. “We want the pope to be clear, in an understandable way, that Russia is a terrorist state.”

Persons: Francis, Mary, “, Father Demush, Valentyna Velychko, Dmytro Bohak, Bohak, “ It’s, ” Locations: Russia, Ukraine, Melitopol

☆ Pope Francis Embraces ‘Youth Day,’ With an Eye on the Future
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-02 | by ( Jason Horowitz | More About Jason Horowitz | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

“In Lisbon, I would like to see a seed for the world’s future,” Francis, 86, said in video remarks to young people ahead of World Youth Day, which he first attended in Brazil at the start of his papacy 10 years ago. The church, he warned, could not be a “club” for the elderly. The meeting will also be attended by more than 700 bishops and 20 cardinals, and comes as Portugal grapples with an exploding clerical sex abuse crisis. Francis is also preparing for a major meeting of the world’s bishops — and for the first time women and laypeople — to tackle divisive issues like the role of women and L.G.B.T.Q. Catholics in the church.

Persons: Pope Francis, “, ” Francis, Francis ’, Francis, — Organizations: Roman Catholic Church, ” Locations: Portugal, Lisbon, Brazil

☆ ‘We Are a Romantic Country’: On the Set of a Steamy Hit in Italy
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-30 | by ( Jason Horowitz | More About Jason Horowitz | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Before dawn, the teenage girls convened outside the Naples Navy base where the wildly popular Italian television show “Mare Fuori” is filmed. “Ti Amo Carmine,” read one rectangle. “Ti Amo Rosa,” read another. Other fans have dived from nearby piers and swum to the back of the set, vexing gate guards charged with keeping them at bay. During the day, their screams have ruined takes.

Persons: ”, Federica Montuori, Ti Amo Carmine, Amo Organizations: Naples Navy Locations: Naples

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