World

Pope Francis ended his trip to Canada Friday as he began — by apologizing to Indigenous survivors of Catholic-run schools where for decades children were abused, after meeting with Inuit people in the Canadian Arctic.

The six-day “penitential pilgrimage” that took the pontiff from Alberta in western Canada to Quebec and then the far north allowed him to meet many of Canada’s First Nations, Metis and Inuit people, who for years had been awaiting his plea for forgiveness.

While many of them welcomed the gesture by the 85-year-old, who spent much of the trip in a wheelchair due to knee pain, they also made clear that this was only a first step on a journey of reconciliation. 

The pope wrapped up his journey in the capital of the vast northern territory of Nunavut, Iqaluit, which means “the place of many fish.”

Residents greeted him there with traditional performances including drumming and throat singing, on a stage set up to resemble an Inuit summer home — evoking whale ribs, sod and stone — beneath a cool, overcast sky.

Francis met with survivors of the schools, then told a crowd of around 2,000 mainly Indigenous people that their stories “renewed in me the indignation and shame that I have felt for months.”

“I want to tell you how very sorry I am and to ask for forgiveness for the evil perpetrated by not a few Catholics who contributed to the policies of cultural assimilation and enfranchisement in those schools,” he said.

As he spoke, Inuit people in the crowd could be seen hugging and holding hands. Some wiped away tears. Later, a handful of people shouted “Thank you!” and “We love you!” as the pope was wheeled off the stage.

From the late 1800s to the 1990s, Canada’s government sent about 150,000 children into 139 residential schools run by the Catholic Church. 

Many were physically and sexually abused at the schools, and thousands are believed to have died of disease, malnutrition or neglect, in what a truth and reconciliation commission later called a “cultural genocide.”

Residents in Iqaluit, a community of just over 7,000 people and where small houses line the rocky ocean shore, have listened closely to the pope’s words throughout his trip.

“He did apologize, and a lot of people don’t seem to be happy with it, but he took that step to come to Nunavut … and I think that’s big,” lifelong Iqaluit resident Evie Kunuk, 47, told AFP. 

The pope’s reception in Canada has been “a little bit lukewarm,” admitted Quebec resident Steve Philippe, 52, who had travelled to Iqaluit to see the pope.

“Maybe expectations were too high… but I think it’s a step in the right direction,” Philippe said.

After the event was over, the leader of the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics was taken to the airport where Inuit people performed one last ceremony.

Francis then boarded his flight back to Rome, during which he is expected to hold a press conference. 

– ‘Brilliant light’ –

Throughout the trip, Indigenous people have spoken of a “release of emotion” at hearing the pope’s words.

But many have warned it was only the beginning. 

Some have called for Francis to rescind the Doctrine of Discovery, the 15th century papal bulls that allowed European powers to colonize any non-Christian lands and people.

Demands were also made for him to allow Indigenous people access to records documenting what happened in the schools, and to return Indigenous artefacts currently held in Vatican museums.

Others have pointed out that while the pope repeatedly apologized for what he said individuals in the Church did, he did not seek forgiveness for the role of the institution itself.

And many have observed that the pope did not specifically mention or apologize for the sexual abuse of First Nations, Metis and Inuit children in the schools.

Inuit leaders had been expected to ask the pope once again to intervene in the case of 93-year-old Joannes Rivoire, a fugitive French priest accused of sexually abusing Inuit children in Nunavut decades ago before fleeing to France.

Earlier this year, Canadian police issued a new arrest warrant for Rivoire, and an Inuit delegation asked Francis at the Vatican to personally intervene to see him extradited.

He did not publicly mention Rivoire or sexual abuse in Iqaluit.

During his Canadian tour, Francis vowed to promote Indigenous rights and made clear the Church was on a “journey” of healing and reconciliation.

“I am returning home greatly enriched,” he said in Quebec City earlier Friday.

In Iqaluit, he spoke of the “beautiful relationship” between the Inuit and the land.”

He said that “it too is strong and resilient, and responds with brilliant light to the darkness that enshrouds it for most of the year.”

Moscow and Kyiv on Friday accused each other of bombing a jail holding Ukrainian prisoners of war in Russian-held territory, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky saying more than 50 were killed and calling the attack a war crime.

Russia’s defence ministry alleged that the strikes were carried out by Ukraine with US-supplied long-range missiles, in an “egregious provocation” designed to stop soldiers from surrendering.

It said that among the dead were Ukrainian forces that had laid down their arms after weeks of fighting off Russia’s brutal bombardment of the sprawling Azovstal steel works in Mariupol.

But Zelensky laid the blame squarely on Russia.

“This was a deliberate Russian war crime, a deliberate mass murder of Ukrainian prisoners of war,” Zelensky said in his daily address to the nation late Friday. “Over 50 are dead.”

Zelensky said an agreement for the Azovstal fighters to lay down their arms, brokered by the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross, included guarantees for their health and safety and called on those two organizations to intervene, as guarantors.

Zelensky also urged the international community, especially the United States, to have Russia officially declared as a state sponsor of terrorism.

“A decision is needed, needed right now,” he said.

– Annexation ‘will not be accepted’ – 

In a sign of Washington’s continued support of Kyiv, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke to his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov for the first time since the beginning of the war Friday, urging Moscow against annexing any more Ukrainian territory occupied by Russian forces.

“It was very important that the Russians hear directly from us that that will not be accepted — and not only will it not be accepted, it will result in additional significant costs being imposed upon Russia if it follows through,” Blinken told reporters in Washington.

Earlier in the day, Zelensky visited a port in southern Ukraine to oversee a ship being loaded with grain for export under a UN-backed plan aimed at getting millions of tonnes of Ukrainian grain stranded by Russia’s naval blockade to world markets.

Ukraine’s presidency released footage of Zelensky standing in front of Turkish ship Polarnet in the port of Chornomorsk on a visit to inspect grain being loaded. Ukraine’s presidency said exports could start in the “coming days.”

In Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman agreed to work together to limit the impact of the war during talks, the French presidency said.

Macron took the meeting with the prince despite fierce criticism from rights groups in a bid to get major crude producer Saudi Arabia to up its production.

– Tangled beds –

Following the strike on the prison, Russian state-television showed what appeared to be destroyed barracks and tangled metal beds, but no casualties could be seen.

Ukraine’s military also denied carrying out the attack saying its forces “did not launch missile and artillery strikes in the area of Olenivka settlement” in the eastern region of Donetsk.

It instead blamed Russia’s invading forces for “a targeted artillery shelling” on the detention facility, saying it was being used to “accuse Ukraine of committing ‘war crimes’, as well as to hide the torture of prisoners and executions”.

Ukraine’s forces in May ended a weeks-long defence of Azovstal, with around 2,500 combatants surrendering after calling a halt to their resistance. 

Moscow’s state media has reported that some officers — including those from the controversial Azov regiment — have been taken to Russia. 

Kyiv meanwhile says it has captured thousands of Russian troops during the invasion and has begun putting some on trial for alleged war crimes. 

A Ukrainian court on Friday reduced the life sentence handed to a Russian soldier in May for pre-meditated murder in the country’s first war crimes trial, instead jailing the serviceman for 15 years.

– Mykolaiv strikes –

Russian strikes elsewhere in Ukraine killed five people and wounded seven more on Friday in the heavily bombed city of Mykolaiv near the country’s southern frontline, the regional governor said.

“They shot at another area near a public transport stop,” governor Vitaliy Kim said in a statement on social media.

Mykolaiv, near the Black Sea, has seen roughly half of its estimated pre-war population of nearly 500,000 people leave and the city has been shelled daily for weeks.

It is the largest Ukrainian-controlled urban hub near the frontlines in the Kherson region, where Kyiv’s army has launched a counter-offensive to regain control of the economically and strategically important coastal territory.

In a separate development, S&P Global Ratings on Friday cut Ukraine’s long-term debt grade by three notches, saying a recently announced plan to defer payments means a default is “a virtual certainty.”

A group of Western countries last week gave their green light to Kyiv’s request to postpone interest payments on its debt and called on other creditors to do so as well.

burs-jbr-acl/md/bfm

Spain and Brazil reported their first monkeypox-related deaths on Friday, marking what are thought to be the first fatalities linked to the current outbreak outside of Africa.

Spain is one of the world’s worst-hit countries, with 4,298 people there infected with the virus, according to the health ministry’s emergency and alert coordination centre.

“Of the 3,750 (monkeypox) patients with available information, 120 cases were hospitalised (3.2 percent) and one case has died,” the centre said in a report.

An official would not give the specific cause of death for the fatality pending the outcome of an autopsy.

In Brazil a 41-year-old man died of monkeypox, local authorities said on Friday.

The man, who local media said had serious immune system problems, died on Thursday in Belo Horizonte, the capital of the southeastern Minas Gerais state.

He “was receiving hospital treatment for other serious conditions”, the state health ministry said in a statement.

“It is important to underline that he had serious co-morbidities, so as not to spread panic in the population. The death rate is very low” for monkeypox, said Minas Gerais health secretary Fabio Baccheretti, who added that the patient was undergoing cancer treatment.

– A global health emergency –

Brazil’s health ministry has recorded close to 1,000 monkeypox cases, mostly in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro states, which are also in the country’s southeast.

Early signs of the disease include a high fever, swollen lymph glands and a chickenpox-like rash.

The World Health Organization (WHO) last Saturday declared the monkeypox outbreak a global health emergency.

According to the WHO, more than 18,000 cases have been detected throughout the world outside of Africa since the beginning of May.

The disease has been detected in 78 countries, with 70 percent of cases found in Europe and 25 percent in the Americas, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday.

As cases surge globally, the WHO on Wednesday called on the group currently most affected by the virus — men who have sex with men — to limit their sexual partners.

Ghebreyesus told reporters that the best way to protect against infection was “to reduce the risk of exposure”.

“For men who have sex with men, this includes, for the moment, reducing your number of sexual partners, reconsidering sex with new partners, and exchanging contact details with any new partners to enable follow-up if needed,” he said.

The disease usually heals by itself after two to three weeks, sometimes taking a month.

A smallpox vaccine from Danish drug maker Bavarian Nordic, marketed under the name Jynneos in the United States and Imvanex in Europe, has also been found to protect against monkeypox.

A Canadian jihadist said to be a key player in the Islamic State group’s propaganda production and who narrated multiple violent videos was sentenced Friday to life in prison, the US Department of Justice said.

Mohammed Khalifa, who was born in Saudi Arabia, pleaded guilty in December to conspiring to provide material support to IS resulting in death.

According to the Department of Justice (DOJ) indictment, he left Canada in 2013 to join the IS group in Syria, where he quickly took on a leading role in the self-proclaimed “caliphate” that straddled that country and Iraq.

Khalifa, now 39, quickly began serving in “prominent roles” within the IS group and by 2014 had become a key member of a propaganda cell, the DOJ said, due in particular to his mastery of both English and Arabic.

That cell was notably behind the production of videos of foreign hostages being executed, including US journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, who were decapitated in 2014.

Khalifa additionally provided the English voiceover for two of the most “exceptionally violent” IS videos, from 2014 and 2017, in which he is seen executing Syrian soldiers, the DOJ said.

He is also the alleged narrator of recruitment videos showing IS attacks in France and Belgium, which urge others to take part in similar acts of violence.

In January 2019, he was captured during a firefight by Kurdish-dominated Syrian forces allied with the United States.

In an interview the same year with Canada’s CBC from his Syrian prison, Khalifa showed no regret for his actions. He said he wanted to return to Canada with his wife and their three children, but on the condition that he would not be tried there.

However, he was entrusted in 2021 to American authorities and ultimately transferred to the United States.

A Brazilian woman and her two adult children, all suffering from dehydration and malnutrition, were freed by police following 17 years of captivity by her husband, authorities said on Friday.

Police had been alerted to the case in a poor neighborhood in the west of Rio de Janeiro by an anonymous tip-off.

“The two youngsters, who are the children of the woman and the suspect, were tied up, soiled and starved,” Rio’s military police, who arrested the father, said in a statement.

The woman and her children, aged 19 and 22 according to local media, were taken to hospital in a state of “serious dehydration and malnutrition,” local emergency services said.

According to the G1 internet news site, the mother told authorities that she and her children would sometimes go three days without food and were regularly the victims of physical and psychological abuse.

Her husband, named as Luiz Antonio Santos Silva, with whom she had been married for 23 years, had told her she would only leave his home “when you’re dead,” she said.

In pictures published by Brazilian media, the adult children looked like adolescents due to their malnutrition.

“When we saw the state of the two children, we thought they wouldn’t have survived another week,” one unnamed inhabitant of the Guaratiba neighborhood, where the family lived, told G1.

“I tried to speak to the mother in the ambulance but she was so weak that she didn’t manage to make a sound.”

Neighbors told authorities that the suspect was given the nickname DJ because he would turn up the music to mask the screams of his victims.

President Joe Biden’s administration tried Friday to defuse heated Chinese warnings against a possible trip to Taiwan by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, as Beijing announced live-fire military drills in the Taiwan Strait.

Pelosi is reportedly about to leave on an Asian tour that would include Taiwan — although she pointedly refused to confirm Friday that she would visit the self-ruled island citing travel security considerations.

China sees any such stop by the speaker as a provocation, upsetting the tense status quo under which Washington formally recognizes China’s sovereignty claim over the island — while backing the democratic Taiwanese government.

“We have many differences when it comes to Taiwan, but over the past 40-plus years, we have managed those differences and done it in a way that has preserved peace and stability and has allowed the people on Taiwan to flourish,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.

“It would be important as part of our shared responsibility to continue to manage this in a wise way that doesn’t create the prospect for conflict and keeping open lines of communication on this issue.” 

The temperature has been steadily rising in Beijing over the prospect of a Pelosi trip.

A day after Chinese leader Xi Jinping told Biden in a lengthy phone call that the United States shouldn’t “play with fire” when it comes to Taiwan, the communist country’s state-run media announced drills in the region Saturday.

“Live ammunition will be fired… between 8:00 am and 9:00 pm (0000-1300 GMT) and any entry (into these waters) will be prohibited”, said a government statement.

The statement did not mention Pelosi. Also, the location of the exercise is just off mainland China’s shore, rather than out at sea in the straits nearer to Taiwan.

However, there appears to be little doubt in the messaging.

While US officials often make discreet visits to the island in a show of support for its democratic self-ruling government, Pelosi is second in line to the US presidency and one of the country’s most powerful politicians.

Pelosi, who would be traveling on US military aircraft during her Asia tour, told reporters Friday that she planned the trip because of the Biden administration’s “strong emphasis” on the Asia-Pacific region.

But she continued to refuse to confirm or deny plans for a stop in Taiwan. “I don’t ever talk about my travels, because some of you know, it’s a security issue,” she said.

– ‘Shoot them down’ –

What China might actually do remains unclear.

A spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry said “a visit to Taiwan by Speaker Pelosi would challenge China’s red line, and any challenge to our red line will no doubt be met with resolute countermeasures.”

In his comments to Biden, reported by Chinese state media, Xi made an equally heated, but vague statement, saying “those who play with fire will eventually get burned.”

The area where Saturday’s Chinese maneuvers are set to take place is located on Pingtan island, which is in the Taiwan Straits, but about 120 kilometers (75 miles) from the actual Taiwanese coast.

However, a commentator for the state-run Global Times newspaper urged intercepting Pelosi’s plane.

“If US fighter jets escort Pelosi’s plane into Taiwan, it is invasion. The PLA has the right to forcibly dispel Pelosi’s plane and the US fighter jets, including firing warning shots and making tactical movement of obstruction. If ineffective, then shoot them down,” wrote Hu Xijin.

John Kirby, spokesman for Biden’s National Security Council, played down what he called “bellicose rhetoric.”

“We’ve seen no physical, tangible indications of anything untoward with respect to Taiwan,” he said.

Stressing there was no change in the US policy of acknowledging Beijing’s legal sovereignty over Taiwan, Kirby also said “there’s no need” for China to react so harshly.

While Pelosi is a close political ally of fellow Democrat Biden, her diplomatic foray has put the president in a tricky position as he tries managing an increasingly high-stakes relationship with China.

Despite the tension, however, Biden and Xi agreed in their call Thursday to set up a first in-person summit at a still to be decided date.

“The president believes it’s really important to keep open lines of communication,” Kirby said.