Pope Francis has lamented a "very strong reactionary attitude" in the US Catholic Church, saying that ideology had replaced faith in some parts of it and some members had failed to understand "there is an appropriate evolution in understanding matters of faith and morals."

During his decade as pontiff, Francis has often faced criticism from conservative sectors of the US church, opposed to reforms such as giving women and lay Catholics more roles and making the church more welcoming and less judgmental towards some, including LGBT people.

The comments were made in Portugal on August 5, during a private meeting on Francis' trip to Lisbon with members of the Jesuit order the pope belongs to, but were scheduled to be published in full as part of the Italian Jesuit journal Civilta Cattolica's end-of-August edition. Daily paper La Repubblica published excerpts in advance on Monday

During the question-and-answer session, a Portuguese Jesuit said that he was saddened while on a sabbatical in the US to find many Catholics, including some bishops, who were hostile to Francis' leadership.

"You have seen that in the United States the situation is not easy: there is a very strong reactionary attitude," Francis said. "It is organized and shapes the way people belong, even emotionally."

The liberal Argentine pontiff, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, has also faced criticism from religious leaders and conservative media in the US on a host of his other stances, including climate change, immigration, social justice, gun control and opposing the death penalty as "neither human nor Christian."

"You have been to the United States and you say you have felt a climate of closure. Yes, this climate can be experienced in some situations," Francis told the questioner. "And there, one can lose the true tradition and turn to ideologies for support. In other words, ideology replaces faith, membership in a sector of the church replaces membership in the church."

Francis said his critics needed to understand that "there is an appropriate evolution in the understanding of matters of faith and morals," and that being backward-looking was "useless" for the church.

He said it was an "error" to consider church teachings to be a "monolith."

Francis gave both a historical and a more recent example to try to illustrate this, saying there was a time when many in the Catholic Church would have supported slavery. In the more recent case of homosexuality, he said, "it is apparent that perception of this issue has changed in the course of history."

"But what I really dislike more generally is when you look at the so-called sins of the flesh through a magnifying glass, as people did for so long," Francis said. He argued that pastoral care required "sensitivity and creativity," also mentioning his first meeting with trans people. "It's become clear to me that they feel spurned. And that's really hard," he said.

One of the pope's fiercest American critics is Rome-based Cardinal Raymond Burke. He wrote in an introduction for a recent book that a meeting of bishops called by Francis for this October to try to help chart the future of the church risked sowing "confusion and error and division."

The lives of Kobra, Najia, Madina, Sonya and Zahra looked as though they were just getting started two years ago. When the Taliban captured the Afghan capital of Kabul, they were about to finish school, working towards a university degree or beginning a career. Suddenly, though, their lives changed dramatically.

The five Afghan women between the ages of 14 and 29 all belong to less privileged layers of society and were the beneficiaries of the relatively liberal laws and new educational opportunities that existed in the republic. But all that came to an end with the Taliban victory.

Through email and video interviews, they spoke with DER SPIEGEL about what has become of their lives in the two years since the country’s new rulers have pushed women out of public life. They speak of the end of their dreams, depression, economic struggle, disappointment with the West and their fury with the Taliban. And they also write about what the West and the security forces of the toppled republic were unable to provide, but the Taliban can: Security

Kobra, 29, was a teacher at a private school in Kabul. She has been unemployed for almost two years. She was the family’s only breadwinner. The father of the family left her mother early on. They are from the central Afghanistan province of Bamyan.

Najia, 14, former high school student. Currently lives with her mother and sister, Kobra, in the home of an uncle in Kabul.

Madina, 23, was pursuing a degree in economics in Kabul until the Taliban closed universities to women last December. Today, she is unemployed and lives with seven siblings in the capital.

Sonya, 23, studied engineering in Harat. She was forced to leave the university in her fourth year, shortly before completing her studies. Currently, Sonya is doing an internship with a construction company. She lives with her parents in a small rental house.

Zahra, 24, is unemployed. She studied literature in the eastern province of Khost and taught at a private school in the capital. A few days ago, she found a job with an aid organization in Kabul. Her dream is to become an author

Kobra

You, who call yourself students of religion, Taliban – are you aware that the Islam revelations begin with "Read!”? This applies to both men and women. You have transformed our faith into an anti-religion!

The Prophet calls on us to strive for knowledge, and He doesn’t differentiate between the sexes, but you prohibit us from learning. If the education of girls were forbidden in Islam, then why does it exist in every single other Muslim country?

Why have you closed higher level schools to girls? Why have you taken our voices? Why have you robbed us of the freedom to go outside? What crime is it to express one’s thoughts? But you don’t want us to speak about our oppression!

The world was made for all humans. God gave us the ability to discover nature, use our voice, to see, to travel. Why have you taken away our right to work? You have brought poverty and death into our homes. You yourself are in opposition to God. You are keeping us in prison. And you claim to be the real Muslims?

Madina

There are seven of us in the house. My brother used to work as an IT specialist at a tech company, and my sister was a teacher. Together, we earned $400 per month and we were doing well. After the fall of the republic, my brother and sister both lost their jobs. Now, my older sister teaches online. A foreign aid organization pays her $200 per month. That’s what we live on.

She's my great role model. I want to become a courageous woman like her. Before the Taliban arrived, she fulfilled as many of our wishes as she could with her salary. She bought us clothes for religious festivals or parties. I want to do the same. But the Taliban have bound our hands and feet. My head hurts. What will become of us? I just want to curl up alone in a corner and cry.

Sonya

A few years before the Taliban toppled the republic, I had an experience that completely changed my life. I was washing the dishes in the kitchen when a TV moderator started interviewing a woman who had earned her diploma at Mehri Heravi High School in Herat and then studied construction engineering at Herat University. I looked up in surprise. The woman was married and had two children, and she was presented as a successful construction engineer. She had achieved everything, she had made the impossible possible! And as she talked about all the difficulties she had overcome, I felt a positive energy flowing through me. "You see how the strength and the ambition of an Afghan woman can break through all the walls of limitations?" I called out in excitement to my brother. On that day, I made my decision. Like this woman, I wanted to study engineering. I enrolled; I had a single goal. I loved what I was doing and made it all the way to my fourth year at university. I wanted to go on to study physics, get to know new countries and travel to space. But then, the Taliban arrived and closed the universities to us women. I tried to get around the ban and enrolled in a drawing course. But it was cancelled. I tried again, I wanted to learn English. But there are no longer any English courses for women in Herat.

Why do the Taliban stand in the way of women’s advancement and their presence in society? It’s because they are afraid that women’s knowledge will limit their power.

Kobra

Qari Hamdallah, yes, I mean you. The one who, every time I leave the house, is standing at the intersection in front of the bus stop and examining the women with those piercing eyes to see if they are obeying. You yell at the drivers if they transport men and women in the same cars. You shove your guard-dog eyes through the car window to examine our clothing. Your gaze feels like a bucket of cold water over my head. I have no male escort, but I leave the house anyway.

Your arrival in Kabul transformed my dreams into nightmares.

Do you know how much effort it took to get to where I was? I studied day and night for the entrance exams for the public university in my favorite city Kabul. My mother is illiterate. We lived in Bamyan and moved to the capital. I was able to earn enough money for the entire family. We weren’t a burden on anyone. Later, as a teacher in a private school, I taught both boys and girls from the seventh to the 12th grade. My sister went to a school for English and painting. I fulfilled my mother’s wishes. We lived in a small house. We were happy.

Since my childhood, you have forced your way into my life with your suicide attacks, or when you would set fire to our schools and mosques. I am a Shiite Muslim. Even as a child, I knew that the Sunni Taliban were the enemies of women and girls. When I used to travel from Kabul to Bamyan, I would cross Shahr Square, which was so frequently the target of your atrocities. Sometimes, the street was still bloody after yet another one of your attacks.

Qari Hamdallah, you who are standing everyday at the bus stop at the intersection: Do you actually know what you have inflicted upon me?

With your arrival, our lives darkened. On the day you came, I ran home from the school, and everything changed. Girls were no longer allowed to learn, I lost my job. You slammed shut the doors of my life. Now, I sit at home, waiting for my uncle to give me a bit of money. We have sold my mother’s jewelry because we had no more bread to eat. I hate asking other people for money.

In the years of the republic, there was less security. But it was still the best time of our lives. Because we were free.

Madina

On the order of the supreme leader of the Islamic Emirate, the beauty salons in Kabul and the provinces were closed down. The last hairdresser we went to was the one at Makroyan Market back in April. I wanted to get my hair done for Eid al-Fitr, the fast-breaking festival. All of the women there had bitter stories to tell – about the unemployment of their husbands, children and brothers. My mother, too, lamented the fact that my father and brother were jobless.

The owner of the salon was concerned. She was the breadwinner for her family. Her husband had died of cancer several years previously and she has two sons and four daughters. "How can feed my children and pay our high rent if the Taliban decide to close down the salons in Kabul?” she wanted to know. They had already been banned in some of the provinces. Now, the capital has also met the same fate.

Being beautiful is not a sin! God is beautiful and God loves beauty. Allah tells us to wear clean, orderly and beautiful clothes for Him, and to be beautiful for Him. Being beautiful does not mean that women are bad or tainted.

When women are sad, they can improve their spirits by putting on makeup. Looking nice is not a crime. Working in salons were among the last jobs available to women.

Sonya

What would it look like if God had created everything without color? Would you still want to see? What would then be the difference between the forest and the desert? Between a blue sky and a cloudy one?

With the closing of the beauty salons and the ban on makeup, the Taliban robbed Afghan women of color. Beauty gives us composure. Some even try to hide their spiritual wounds with makeup. With the ban, the Taliban erased color from women’s faces and washed away the fragrance that surrounded them. The Taliban make women feel like they are dead. But we are still alive.

The Taliban see us women as the source of sin and corruption. If they succumb to lust, it is a sin that in their eyes stems from the freedom and beauty of women. If women were allowed to walk around freely, then the Taliban, who see themselves as the true Muslims, might commit sins because they feel attracted to these women. Isn’t it interesting that those who clearly aren’t able to control their own desires and moods claim that they are able to rule an entire country?

Madina

Freedom also had a price. When we used to walk into the center of Kabul – to Maryam High School, Pamir Cinema or to shop at the Makroyan Market – we would often encounter men with poor manners. They had nothing better to do than harass us. In crowded buses, they would touch our bodies. They would say obscene things, stick their telephone numbers in the folds of our robes or let their notes fall to our feet for us to pick up. Now that the Taliban are here, that no longer happens. Men on the streets now behave themselves. Because it’s not just the women who are afraid of the Taliban, the men fear them too.

I am grateful to the Taliban for some things. There are now seats for women on the bus. And they have regulated food prices. Some things had grown so expensive that we were only able to eat rice and beans for months on end. Now, we can buy meat every two or three weeks. There, they have done well. But why don’t they use their power for the benefit of everybody?

Najia

It was the 10th day of the month of Muharram. After I had breakfasted and cleaned the house, my mother, my sister Kobra and I went to the mosque. Armed Taliban police were there to secure the mosque. For as long as I can remember, we Hazara, as Shiite Muslims, have been the target of the deadliest Taliban attacks. How strange, I thought: Only two years ago, these same Taliban killed thousands of innocent Shiites with their attacks on schools and mosques. And now they have come to protect us?

How can we trust them? In the eyes of the Taliban, we are nothing but infidels. Worthless, without rights. The world should know that us girls start every day here with desperation. There is nobody we can tell about our pain, and nobody who wants to hear it.

Kobra

Families where there is no man are being denied their existence by your laws. We are one such family. How are we supposed to earn our bread? Show me the religion where it is said that people should live in poverty and sell their organs and their children to feed themselves? All that is happening here in your empire.

Madina

After the collapse of the republic, classes continued at the university for a few weeks. At first, the Taliban claimed that classes would continue. They set up divides between the male and female students and there were also so-called culture classes. The instructor would ask about surahs from the Koran and threatened that those who couldn’t recite them by heart would be thrown out of the second story window. I trembled. Fear became my constant companion.

Taking away our right to education and work is like forbidding us from eating and breathing. It kills the human soul and destroys society. It’s like cutting through the roots of civilization.

Zahra

Where are you today who spent all those years living with us here? You diplomats and politicians, as you were called by the powers of the world, the so-called international community? You are silent, as if Afghanistan was no longer part of the world and there were no longer any humans here.

I am furious at you international media, you journalists, who are now silent. You limited your coverage to the initial days after the Taliban takeover, and now – now that we are under much greater strain – you have left us alone.

I am furious at you Taliban, who are inflicting such damage on your country. At you who lack even a shred of humanity. I don’t know where you learned your ruthless recipes, which cannot be found in any book.

I am furious at you, the man who calls himself our father, Ashraf Ghani, the president who left the Afghans behind with no protection. It is now easy for the Taliban to oppress the people in this forgotten country, to steal the girls and force them into marriage. And we, those who remain here, continue to water the flowers of our hope so they do not wilt.

Madina

When the Taliban hear music coming from our yard, they storm the party, beat up the DJ and claim that music is haram, forbidden. Female athletes are no longer allowed to take part in competitions. Women and girls may no longer participate in art exhibits. When we demonstrated for our rights, they met us with tear gas, clubs and water cannons. I don’t know which is greater: My hatred for the Taliban, because they took all that away from us, or my anger at the imagination with which they did it.

Sonya

Woman can do many different things at the same time. They can be a good mother, a good wife, a good sister and be an engineer, politician or astronaut at the same time, all those things that men are able to do. But the Taliban don’t want to share power with the other half of society. They know: An increase of power for women means a decrease of their own. That's the real reason they define women as creatures that have no needs of their own.

They only want women around to serve their pleasure and take care of other needs. Now, though, they are unexpectedly encountering women in Afghan cities who are strong, educated and able. For the Taliban, that is unacceptable.

Some men here say that the real crime the Americans committed here was that of instilling nonsense in the minds of women. And that they are no longer willing to accept the intended fate of an Afghan woman.

The Taliban should know: If they erect walls on the path to our goals, we will become ladders. If they burn the walls, we will become water. If they increase the pressure, we will grow stronger.

The fact that I am still writing proves: I hope, I laugh and I am still moving. And I won’t stop until I get what I want

Last Monday, the strike announced weeks before by the Dominican Medical Association (CMD) took place, as part of a series of isolated protests, which would be carried out if the demands are not heard. Representatives of these companies informed that the strike will be nationwide.

The strike ratifies the failure of negotiations between the Dominican Association of Health Insurance Companies and grassroots organizations, led by the Dominican Medical Association, which are demanding a democratization of the health insurance system and an improvement in health infrastructure and services.

The main demands that are retaken and redrafted from unsuccessful conversations are the regulation of codes for physicians, the expansion of the Basic Health Plan and the leveling of rates in professional fees, among others.

The effects of the strike were felt on Monday, affecting several health services, which were not well received by many patients. In view of this situation, the Dominican Association of Health Risk Insurers has proposed to the leaders of the strike to agree on a new negotiating table. The request was communicated by its president, José Manuel Vargas, insisting on the need of not affecting patients

The Medical Association is at the forefront of the striking professionals. Its president, Rufino Senén Caba, warned that they are in permanent session and asked those responsible to seek a solution to their demands in order to avoid a deepening of the struggle. The strike lasted 12 hours and began early in the morning.

Several mass media have reported that the government has not made any statement so far.

Since July 26, the strikers announced that it would be a staged stoppage in response to the absence of agreements in the meetings held with government health institutions and the insurance company.

These negotiations were carried out for more than four months, and representatives of the plaintiff institutions denounce that they only received “vague promises”. This was communicated by Senén Caba, president of the CMD.

Both state and private institutions participated in the strike, both sectors interested in the creation of a Social Security Law that guarantees the quality of health services, and that these services be conceived as citizens’ rights.

“It is not possible that after 14 joint meetings, the committee has not made a proposal that minimally meets the expectations of those of us who went there, with the promise that it was the expeditious way to reach an agreement,” the CDM stated in a communiqué.

These are not the only demands being made by Dominican medical organizations to the government. Already in days prior to January 2023, different guilds of the sector, under the banner of the National Health Coordinating Committee CONASALUD, complained to the president about the “lack of equipment and medicines in the hospitals of the country” and called for the “remodeling of the health centers that are not in good conditions.”

Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon fell in July to its lowest level for the month since 2017, according to preliminary government figures.

Satellite data from Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE) on Thursday indicated that 500 square kilometres (193 square miles) of rainforest were cleared in the month, a 66 percent drop from the same period a year ago.

In the first seven months of the year, deforestation has fallen a cumulative 42.5 percent from the same period of 2022, INPE’s preliminary data showed.

The data comes after figures last month showed deforestation in the Amazon had fallen 34 percent in the first half of 2023.

Sequential drops in June and July are especially promising, as monthly data on Amazon deforestation often spikes this time of year, when the weather turns drier.

“We are seeing the deforestation growth curve invert,” Environment Ministry Secretary Joao Paulo Capobianco told reporters in Brasilia.

The fresh data come as President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva gathers next week with leaders of Amazonian countries for a summit in northern Brazil to discuss ways to protect the world’s largest rainforest.

President Lula said on Wednesday that the summit would seek to draw up a common policy for the first time to protect the region, which will include dealing with security along the borders and asking private businesses to help with the reforestation of 30 million hectares (74 million acres) of degraded land.

Leftist leader Lula took office in January promising to end deforestation by 2030 after destruction surged under his predecessor Jair Bolsonaro, who slashed environmental protection efforts.

Speaking to international media on Wednesday, Lula said: “We know we have a responsibility to convince the world that investing is cheap if it’s a matter of saving the rainforest.”

“The world needs to help us preserve and develop the Amazon,” he added.

Experts praised the reduction in deforestation in the early months of the Lula administration, while calling for continued vigilance in the coming months, when fires and clear-cutting often peak in the region.

“It’s a very significant drop for a drier month,” said WWF-Brasil Science Manager Mariana Napolitano.

“That shows us that the emergency measures that were taken, especially command and control ones, have been working. But deforestation remains at high levels, and to zero it by 2030 more structural measures will be needed.”

Last month, Brazil’s Environment Minister Marina Silva said that the fall in deforestation was a direct result of the Lula government quickly ramping up resources for environmental enforcement.

During Bolsonaro’s 2019-2022 term in office, deforestation of the Amazon shot up 75 percent compared with the average over the previous decade. The far-right former leader had called for more farming and mining on protected lands, saying it would lift the region out of poverty.

Environmental protection is a key issue as the South American trade bloc Mercosur negotiates a long-delayed free trade accord with the European Union.

The EU recently made new demands of the four Mercosur countries – Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay – to fight environmental crimes.

South Africa’s radical leftist opposition party on Saturday urged the leaders of China, India and Brazil to boycott the Brics summit in Johannesburg next month in solidarity with Russia’s Vladimir Putin, who will not be attending.

Putin’s potential visit had posed a diplomatic and legal dilemma for South Africa, as he is the target of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant, but it was confirmed earlier this month he would not take part in person.

At an anniversary rally for the South Africa’s third-largest party, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), leader Julius Malema called on the remaining BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) leaders to also skip the August 22-24 summit, in a show of support for Putin.

“We call on the president of the People’s Republic of China, India and Brazil not to come to (the) Brics summit in solidarity with President Putin,” Malema said.

Malema also denounced the United States for “threatening” South Africa by demanding it turn against the Russian leader in exchange for remaining part of the landmark African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which grants duty-free access for most exports.

“They can take away AGOA and leave us with our sovereignty,” the 42-year-old said, addressing a a packed stadium of over 90,000 supporters donning the party colour red.

The militant EFF, which draws inspiration from Marxism-Leninism, was celebrating its 10th anniversary.

As musicians, politicians and fans remember Sinead O’Connor, some Muslims are disappointed that the Irish singer and lifelong activist’s religious identity is not being highlighted in tributes.

UK police on Wednesday said the 56-year-old was found unresponsive in her London residence on Wednesday and that there her death was not being treated as suspicious.

Since the news of her death, Muslim fans of the 90s superstar have said her conversion to Islam, a cornerstone of her identity, was inspiring, but that some media reports have failed to note her religious beliefs in obituaries.

O’Connor, whose chart-topping hit “Nothing Compares 2 U” helped her reach global stardom, converted to Islam in 2018.

“This is to announce that I am proud to have become a Muslim. This is the natural conclusion of any intelligent theologian‘s journey. All scripture study leads to Islam. Which makes all other scriptures redundant,” the songstress tweeted on October 19, 2018.

At that time, O’Connor tweeted selfies donning the Muslim headscarf, the hijab, and uploaded a video of her reciting the Islamic call to prayer, the azan.

She took on the Muslim name Shuhada’ Davitt – later changing it to Shuhada Sadaqat – but continued to use the name Sinead O’Connor professionally.

One social media user said imagery of the singer without the hijab points to the glaring lack of Muslim reporters in newsrooms.

Meanwhile, some said that O’Connor was an inspiration for queer Muslims globally.

In 2000, she came out as a lesbian during an interview. But the singer, who was married to multiple men throughout her life, later said that her sexuality was fluid and that she did not believe in labels.

Some found joy in O’Connor’s conversion growing up, seeing themselves represented, while others, just learning about her Muslim identity at the news of her death, also took inspiration.

O’Connor was no stranger to controversy.

A lifelong nonconformist, she was outspoken about religion, feminism, and war, as well as her own addiction and mental health issues.

In 2014, she refused to play in Israel.

“Let’s just say that, on a human level, nobody with any sanity, including myself, would have anything but sympathy for the Palestinian plight. There’s not a sane person on earth who in any way sanctions what the f*** the Israeli authorities are doing,” she told Hot Press, an Irish music magazine.

Her iconic shaved head and shapeless wardrobe defied early 90s popular culture’s notions of femininity and sexuality.

In 1992, she ripped up a photo of Pope John Paul II during a television appearance on Saturday Night Live, vocal against the Catholic Church’s history of child abuse.

The late former star was also a firm supporter of a united Ireland, under which the United Kingdom would relinquish control of Northern Ireland.

WASHINGTON, July 23 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that while Ukraine has reconquered half the territory that Russia initially seized in its invasion, Kyiv faced a "a very hard fight" to win back more.

"It’s already taken back about 50% of what was initially seized," Blinken said in an interview to CNN on Sunday.

"These are still relatively early days of the counteroffensive. It is tough," he said, adding: "It will not play out over the next week or two. We’re still looking I think at several months."

Hopes that Ukraine could quickly clear Moscow's forces from its territory following the launch of a summer counteroffensive are fading as Kyiv's troops struggle to breach heavily entrenched Russian positions in the country's south and east.

Late last month President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was quoted as saying that progress against Russian forces was "slower than desired" but that Kyiv would not be pressured into speeding it up.