Francisco Valverde, the young Spaniard who this Friday morning confessed to Pope Francis in the framework of World Youth Day (WYD) in Lisbon, has assured that he has met “a parish priest” more than ” a Pope”, and has assured that, after Francis' pardon, he feels that he has been “born again”.

“Thanks to the attitude of the Pope, to the closeness that he has, at no time has a person of difficult access been shown, I was expecting a Pope and I have almost found a priest from any parish”, he assured in statements to COPE chain.

Volunteer in the world organization of WYD and student of Communication at Loyola Andalucía University, this young man from Córdoba has “truly” felt that life for him “begins again” after having confessed to the Pontiff, according to his words on the radio station radio.

“That is to say, to put my life in front of who is the representative of Christ on earth, to receive his forgiveness, advice and blessing is to die and be born again,” he explained.

For him, it is a “privilege” to have been able to receive the sacrament of reconciliation from Pope Francis himself and he still does not fully believe that it happened. “I still don't really believe it,” he says, while acknowledging that the night before it was “quite” difficult for him to sleep.

The young man received the news of his election about a month ago and at first he did not believe it. Although the confession is secret, Valverde has revealed some details and has indicated that the Pope has invited him to “be brave”.

The President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, has signed this Friday a bill that raises the maximum recruitment age for military service from 27 to 30 years, a measure that will come into force on January 1, 2024.

The first draft law submitted to the Duma in June also increased the lower limit for conscription from the current 18 years to 21, although the text was amended and voted on again in the Russian Lower House.

“Many guys want to go and serve at the age of 18. Now we will give them that opportunity,” argued the head of the Duma Defense Committee, Andrei Kartapolov, about the changes to the bill, which finally leaves the range between 18 and 30.

However, there are exceptions: those who turn 27 before the end of 2023 will not be subject to the new legislation. “These citizens will become conscripts and will not be subject to conscription in 2024,” Kartapolov explained in June when presenting the measure.

The law on the increase in the maximum recruitment age also authorizes senior military officers during martial law and the mobilization process to create specialized companies to help Russian security agencies maintain order, according to the news agency. TASS news.

Putin has also signed a bill this Friday to prohibit those citizens subject to military registration and enlistment from leaving the country from the day their summons is sent.. Said prohibition was in force before the moment in which the summons was fulfilled.

The environmental leader Greta Thunberg has canceled her attendance at the Edinburgh International Book Festival (Scotland) due to the “eco-imposture” of her sponsor, the Scottish fund management firm Baillie Gifford, the organization announced this Friday.

“As a climate activist, I cannot attend an event that is sponsored by Baillie Gifford, who invests heavily in the fossil fuel sector,” said the young Swedish woman, who was invited to an event on August 13.

“Green image laundering efforts by the fossil fuel industry, including sponsorship of cultural events, allows it to maintain the social license to continue operating. I cannot and do not want to be associated with events that accept this type of sponsorship,” she explains in a statement released by the literary festival.

The organizers' response

Nick Barley, director of the event, which is included in the Edinburgh International Festival of Music and Performing Arts, has said for his part that he “respects” the decision of the 20-year-old activist, although he feels “disappointed”..

Barley defends the opportunity that, with its sponsorship for 19 years, Baillie Gifford offers them to “provide a platform for debate and discussion on key issues that affect humanity, including the climate crisis”.

“As a non-profit organization, we would not be in a position to do so without the long-term support of organizations like Baillie Gifford,” he says in the note, where he promises to reimburse those affected.

The director of the Book Festival maintains that the company is “part of the solution” by pioneering investment in “climate-positive” companies, providing funds to help them grow.

In the same statement, the fund manager assures that it is not “a major investor in fossil fuels”, since only “2% of the money” of its clients is “in companies with a business linked” to the sector.

The Russian opponent Alexéi Navalni has been sentenced this Friday to 19 years in prison for extremism, as the Moscow City Court has made known in its opinion.

The trial took place in the Vladimir region prison -about 200 kilometers from Moscow-, where he is already serving nine years for fraud. In addition, the prison services prevented the press from being present in the courtroom and the journalists had to follow the hearing on television from another room.

Navalni, 47, will have to serve his sentence in a prison with a special regime, where recidivist prisoners or those who have received life sentences are confined.

“Remains assigned to AA. Navalni a prison sentence for a period of 19 years to be served in a special regime colony,” announced judge Andrei Suvorov in the verdict, collected by the Russian agency TASS.

The magistrate barely took a few minutes to hand down the sentence against Navalni, who appeared in the courtroom dressed in a prisoner's uniform.

The Russian opponent was charged in June with creating an “extremist community”, inciting extremism, founding organizations that violate citizens' rights, financing extremism, leading minors to carry out “dangerous acts” and “rehabilitating Nazism”.

Navalni, a critic of the Kremlin and Russian President Vladimir Putin, is already serving a nine-year sentence for crimes of fraud and contempt linked to fundraising for the activities of the Anti-Corruption Fund (FBK), an organization founded by himself and classified as “extremist” by Moscow.

According to the extra-parliamentary opposition, he will not go free as long as Putin, who will most likely run for re-election in 2024, remains in power.

Navalni, who had predicted that he would receive a “Stalinist” sentence of 18 years, recalled the day before that he must still be tried by a military court for terrorism, which could bring him, according to his forecasts, another ten years.

In addition, he asked his co-religionists not to give up and to continue protesting against the Kremlin, even if that protest is silent.

“There is nothing shameful in choosing the safest form of protest. It is shameful to do nothing and be intimidated,” he said on Telegram.

Navalni was jailed in January 2021 when he returned to Moscow from Berlin, where he had been recovering from a poisoning that he and Western governments blamed on Putin's security service.

With this new sentence, the western chancelleries have demanded his release

The Bishop of Orihuela-Alicante, José Ignacio Munilla, stated in a catechism during World Youth Day (WYD) that “nobody is born in the wrong body” because “God is not wrong”.

“Ecology has to begin with respect for ourselves, God has created us well, God does not make mistakes, no one is born in the wrong body,” Munilla stressed this Wednesday, in one of the catechism that Spanish bishops gave to groups of young people. in different locations in Portugal.

In a reflection on integral ecology, the theme chosen by WYD for this first catechesis, the Bishop of Orihuela-Alicante has warned that ecology, if it is not integral, “is not Christian”, it is “ideology”, and has warned of some “blatant contradictions” of environmentalism that is not comprehensive.

Among others, he has criticized that environmentalism “denounces transgenics, but “at the same time” defends “the transgender, that one can suddenly change from being a man to being a woman”. “It is a contradiction that makes an ideology clear,” he said.

Likewise, he has denounced that ecology of “those who defend and save whales, seals and penguins” at the same time that they defend “abortion”. As he has specified, “it is one thing to have respect for animals” and another thing is to say that “they have rights.”

In this sense, he has also criticized how “carts” that look like babies but carry “a dog” are currently seen on the streets.. “That they let the dog be a dog, the existence of 'perrhijos' is a drama,” he lamented.

Among other issues, the bishop also rejected that people “get stuck” against fertility and, on the other hand, warned of the problem of “consumerism”, specifying that the issue “is not only how to recycle plastic” but also the lack of “austerity”.

In an impromptu speech, during a meeting with charitable associations on World Youth Day, Pope Francis invited them to “get their hands dirty” demonstrating “concrete love” for those most in need and has invited each person to wonder if you feel “disgusted” towards poverty, if you clean your hands every time you shake hands with a sick or vulnerable person to “not get infected”.

“There is no abstract love, it does not exist, platonic love is in orbit, not in reality, concrete love is that which gets its hands dirty; and each one can ask: 'Is the love I feel for those here concrete? or abstract? When I shake hands with someone in need, a sick person, an elderly person, do I do this right away [making a gesture of wiping with his hand] so that it doesn't spread to me? Am I disgusted by the poverty of the others?”, he stressed.

This was stated this Friday in a meeting with representatives of some assistance and charity centers at the Serafina Parish Center, in Lisbon, within the framework of World Youth Day (WYD) 2023.

Francisco was reading the speech he had prepared but, at one point, he stopped and confessed to those present that he did not see well with his glasses. “The reflectors aren't working for me, I can't read well, so I'm going to give it to them, I'm not going to strain my eyes and read badly, that can't be done,” he said, to the applause of the audience.

After the break, the Pontiff criticized “distilled lives”, an expression that he already used this Thursday in another of his speeches, and asked himself “how many distilled and useless lives go through life without leaving a trace, because they have no weight”. .

Centers that “generate life”

Faced with this reality, Bergoglio has encouraged people to live “leaving their mark” as do the assistance and charity centers that are “inspiration” for others and that “generate life”.. “By touching reality, the misery of others, you are generating inspiration, you are generating life, keep going, don't get discouraged, and if you get discouraged, have a glass of water and keep going,” the Pope invited.

As he specified, “charity is the origin and goal of the Christian path” and the action of the assistance centers are “the concrete reality of love in action” that helps “not to forget the path”. Specifically, the Pontiff has emphasized three aspects: doing good together, acting concretely and being close to the most fragile.

In this sense, the Pope stressed that a person “must not be defined” by an illness, a problem or a limitation, but must “contribute” and “enrich” the “whole” as it is.

“We are not a disease”

“We must not allow ourselves to be defined by the disease, or by the problems, because we are not a disease, we are not a problem. Each one of us is a gift, a gift, a unique gift, with its limits, but a valuable and sacred gift for God, for the Christian community and for the human community”, he defended.

In addition, the Pontiff has emphasized the need to “act concretely” in the “here and now” and has pointed out that “the Church is not an archeology museum”.. “Some think it that way but it is not,” he stressed.

In the part of the speech not delivered, the Pope also proposed not to waste time “lamenting reality” and “facing concrete needs with joy.” Likewise, Francis has invited to “be close to the most fragile” of “the poor, the excluded, the marginalized, the discarded, the little ones, the defenseless”. “They are the treasure of the Church, they are God's favorites.”

No distinctions by origin

Among them, the Pope asks “not to make distinctions” regardless of whether they are Spanish or foreign. “Helping others is a gift to oneself and does good to all. Yes, love is a gift for everyone,” he emphasized.

A 35-year-old woman has died in the American state of Indiana after drinking too much water, as various international media have reported, since she ingested 2 liters, the approximate amount that should be drunk in a day, in just 20 minutes.

Ashley Summers died after spending the last weekend of July with her husband and daughters at Freeman Lake. On the last day of the trip, he began to feel unwell and show signs of dehydration, but despite the enormous amounts of water he drank, he could not quench his thirst.. Summers drank a total of four 500ml bottles.

When the woman returned home, she lost consciousness in her garage and never recovered.. The Daily Mail newspaper reports that the young woman suffered “severe brain swelling”.

Health services discovered that the woman had hyponatremia, a disorder in which the concentration of sodium in the blood is too low, with excess water in the body.

At least six people have died and another 31 are missing due to a landslide in the mountain resort of Shovi, in north Georgia, the Georgian Interior Ministry reported on Friday.

The natural disaster, which occurred on Thursday night, devastated the resort, located next to the Chankaji River, from which more than 200 people have already been evacuated by helicopter.

“Rescue teams continue to search for the missing,” said the country's infrastructure minister, Irakli Karseladze.

“It is the largest known natural disaster in western Georgia, except for the earthquake that occurred in 1991 in the Racha region,” geologist Merab Gaprindashvili told local media from Shovi.

According to Gaprindashvli, the landslide has been caused by torrential rains in recent days, added to the thawing of two glaciers in the Caucasus mountain range near Shovi.