0h, absolutely. obviously, as you said, it s been over 600 years since a pope has stepped down and resigned. so it was a novel situation to have, some people called it, two popes. and i think you see that benedict xvi, the way that he embraced that role, is how pope francis has as someone who is there silently supporting the church. there hasn t been a lot of public news from him during the course of these now nine years, almost ten years, that he has resigned. 0ccasional news, occasional messages. but he has been silently praying for the church, kind of from behind the scenes. he has written a lot, though, 60 books in his lifetime. he s given the odd interview as well. has he seen in some ways is a bit of a lightning rod for some conservatives within the church, who oppose some of what pope francis has been trying to do?
desperately ill people. 0utside this hospital in chengdu, a queue for emergency services. government officials say the situation is under control. that s not what these pictures suggest. at the dongjiao funeral home, one of the city s biggest, more evidence of the scale of the crisis one funeral procession after another. workers here say they re so busy, they had no time to eat. from 30 50 services a day, up to around 200. covid mostly to blame. and yet china is opening up. relaxing rules for inbound travellers and raising the prospect of its own citizens, once again, being able to go abroad. welcome news for travel companies after three bleak years. translation: since this morning, we ve had lots of inquiries - from oui’ customers. they re asking whether they can travel abroad normally again, whether they ll need to quarantine on their return and when international tourism will return.
but we always put a word of caution in, saying this figure is actually very low, probably, compared to the real figure which may be much higher. it is worth remembering that we have had no access to some of the areas where the fighting has been the heaviest, such as mariupol, or more recently kherson. we ve not really investigated the situation in those areas or many other areas of ukraine to which we have no access whatsoever. so these are fairly conservative low estimates, essentially. the realfigure is probably much higher. do you take into account civilian deaths caused as a result of the war, as well, people who may have died because of a lack of access to healthcare or through things like the cold or hunger? no, these figures do not
if it was reclassified, the disease would be seen as no more severe than a regular flu. let s take you to kosovo now the kremlin spokesman, dmitry peskov, has rejected an assertion by kosovo s interior minister that russia is behind alleged serbian attempts to destabilise kosovo. tensions escalated this week when serbs set up more roadblocks in northern kosovo, demanding the release of a former serb policeman. they say their security forces on the border with kosovo are in full combat readiness . mr peskov said moscow backed belgrade s efforts to support the 50,000 ethnic serbs living in kosovo. but he denied the claim that serbia was trying to undermine kosovo with russian connivance. here s what the prime minister of kosova, albin kurti said about the situation. translation: unfortunately, these | criminals sanctioned by the uk and | britain are being supported by the president and the government of serbia with the aim of destabilising the region in addition to violating
felix wanders through his typhoon ravaged rice crops. his hard work is in ruins. translation: ican t. remember the typhoons and their names, but this has been the most heartbreaking yet. prices of goods have increased. meanwhile, the price of our crops remain the same. it means what we harvest is worthless. 0ur situation right now is the hardest ever. felix is not alone. millions of hectares of precious rice crops have been wiped out by successive storms. farmers have also had to pay more for fertilizer, for machinery, than ever before. the philippines needs its farmers to feed them, but many make so little, they cannot feed themselves. two thirds of this country are already unsure of where their next meal is coming from.