WORLD

Moscow, Russia | Xinhua | Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed the country’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to start a 36-hour truce along the entire line of contact between the parties in Ukraine from Jan. 6 to 7, the Kremlin said Thursday. “Taking into account the appeal of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill, …

Washington, U.S. | Xinhua | The U.S. House of Representatives voted to adjourn until noon on Friday with no speaker elected on Thursday after 11 rounds of voting. U.S. Congressman Kevin McCarthy from California, the House Republican leader, fell short of the necessary votes to take the gavel in five more …

Las Vegas, U.S. | Xinhua | U.S. tech giant Qualcomm announced on Wednesday Snapdragon Ride Flex SoC (System-on-Chip), which is the automotive industry’s first scalable family of SoCs to simultaneously support digital cockpit and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS). The Snapdragon Ride Flex SoC supports mixed-criticality workloads, allowing for digital cockpit, …

Pope Francis extols Benedict XVI as pastor in historic two-pope Vatican funeral ✳ 4,500 priests ✳ 500 bishops ✳ 125 cardinals Vatican City | National Catholic Online | In one of the rarest of scenes in two millennia of Catholic Church history, Pope Francis on Jan. 5 presided over the …

Dublin, Ireland | Xinhua | Facebook parent company Meta Ireland has been fined a total of 390 million euros (413 million U.S. dollars) for breaches of European Union (EU) data protection rules, the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) said on Wednesday. The DPC handed out two fines to Meta Platforms Ireland Limited. …

London, UK | Xinhua | United Kingdom (UK) Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pledged to halve inflation and boost the country’s economy in his first major speech in 2023 on Wednesday. Sunak made five pledges. These are: to halve inflation; to grow the economy; to reduce national debt; to cut hospital waiting …

Washington, U.S. | Xinhua | Members of a paralyzed U.S. House of Representatives failed to elect a new speaker again on Wednesday afternoon with no end in sight to the political stalemate. The House voted to adjourn until early Wednesday night for closed-door negotiations after U.S. Congressman, Kevin McCarthy, a Republican …

🔴 Mass starts at 11am (click to see order of mass) Vatican City | NCRonline.org |  A written account of the history-making papacy of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI will be placed alongside his body in his coffin for burial, the Vatican said Jan. 3 in revealing plans for the first funeral …

t Tianjin, China | Xinhua | Ruins of over 130 hidden doors on the Great Wall, one of the world’s great wonders, have been recently unveiled through close to centimeter-resolution continuous shooting, said a research team on the Great Wall’s defense system on Wednesday. Based on further picture analysis and …

United Nations | Xinhua | A spokesman for the United Nations on Tuesday underscored the importance of upholding the status quo in the holy sites, in reaction to the controversial visit by Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir to the flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East Jerusalem. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres …