Pope Leo urges healing of ‘deep wounds’ before meeting child sexual abuse survivors in France 27. September 2026 (14:20) Catholic church must reckon with its ‘painful errors’, pontiff tells crowd in Lourdes during four-day tourThe pope has called on the Catholic church to heal “deep wounds” and “painful errors”, before a meeting with survivors of child sexual abuse as he continues his four-day visit to France.Addressing a crowd in a large field near the Catholic shrine of Lourdes on Sunday, Pope Leo XIV called on the church to reckon with its past, without directly referencing sexual abuse scandals in France that affected at least 330,000 children over seven decades. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
Only 3% of US sickle cell patients receive red blood cell exchange for disease, researchers find 27. September 2026 (14:00) Various factors block sufferers of disease from receiving treatment that is effective and has widespread availabilitySickle cell patients are missing out on an effective treatment despite widespread US hospital access to the technology, new research has found.That treatment is called a red blood cell exchange, a procedure that discards a patient’s damaged red blood cells while simultaneously mixing the patient’s remaining plasma, platelets and white blood cells with red blood cells from a donor before returning them to the body. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
Bad language: profane Trump brings presidential swearing out into open 27. September 2026 (14:00) President has let rip with swearwords in recent months, redefining norms about acceptable language in public officeWith a lifetime of political memories stretching back to John F Kennedy’s assassination and the Black civil rights struggles of the 1960s, Cheryl Johnson had one complaint above all else about today’s politicians: the swearing.“All this cursing in politics, we never heard that before,” said Johnson, a retired social worker living in the Pittsburgh area. “Words are very powerful, and the past 45 presidents of this country, have not used such vile language. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
Houses can be built on floodplains despite failing safety test, says high court 27. September 2026 (13:48) Decision to allow development of 190 new homes in north Somerset sparks campaign for change in the lawHouses can be built on floodplains even if they fail a crucial safety test, according to a high court judgment that will be of “immense interest” to developers across England and Wales.The ruling clears the way for a highly controversial development of 190 new homes on north Somerset’s floodplains, despite the site being in “flood zone 3a”, the highest level of flood risk before land is considered a functional floodplain. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
