The Irish government has announced increases in the minimum funds requirements for foreign students. The changes will come into effect on 30 June 2025, and they mean that international students who are not required to have a visa (mostly students from the EU) to study in Ireland will need to prove the same level of financial savings as those who require a visa (mostly students from non-EU countries).
The announcement was sudden. The government provided just over 90 days’ notice, which means that students with visa-free-status who are close to beginning studies in Ireland – e.g., they have paid required tuition fees, booked flights, etc. – will now need to access €2,000–€3,000 more than what they were told to have when they applied for their course.
For all international students applying to courses of more than eight months, the minimum level of financial support will be €10,000 for the first year, and proof of that amount plus course fees for every subsequent year.
For courses of less than eight months, the requirement is €833 per month or €6,665 (in total), which represents a 120% increase over the 2023 threshold, and which is up from the €4,680 required currently. Those shorter courses are often delivered by the English-language sector, which has signalled its alarm over the financial requirement increase.
Call for a review
English Education Ireland, the national body representing over 60 accredited English-language schools, is calling for an immediate review of the increased savings threshold. Lorcan O’Connor Lloyd, CEO of English Education Ireland, says:
“This change has come without consultation, justification, or notice. It is difficult to see how a 120% increase in two years [for courses of less than eight months] can be considered proportionate when the cost of living has risen just 2% annually. The affected students are legally permitted to work part-time while in Ireland, yet are now being required to show financial backing as if they were not. This policy undermines the very structure of Ireland’s work-study visa system.”
On behalf of its members, English Education Ireland is calling for:
An immediate pause and review of the policy
A transition period to protect students already booked
Full consultation with the education sector moving forward
The association states: “If unchallenged, the policy will lead to mass cancellations, reputational damage to Ireland, and loss of key emerging markets that have helped rebuild the sector post-pandemic.”
The growing popularity of Ireland
In the past five years, international students have become increasingly drawn to Ireland for reasons including Brexit (which, among other things, ushered in full international fees for EU students in the UK), stiffer immigration regimes in Australia and Canada, and a volatile political climate in the most expensive destination, the US.
In 2023/24, the number of international students in Irish higher education exceeded 40,000 for the first time and was 15% higher than in 2022/23. Supercharged growth has come from Mexico (61%) in particular, a country whose students have visa-free status in Ireland. Mexico is a price-sensitive market, so the more significant financial requirement for visa-free students beginning on 30 June may influence demand.
In addition, Latin American countries are some of the most important growth markets for Ireland’s English-language learning sector. In 2023, the top markets in the non-EU/EEA segment where visa is not required were:
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The Hidden Alliance: U.S. Presidents and Israel’s Nuclear Power
21WIRE
In his 2006 Senate confirmation hearings for the position of Secretary of Defense, former CIA Director Robert Gates remarked, while he was serving as a university president, that Iran is encircled by “nuclear-armed powers,” specifically mentioning “the Israelis to the west.” Additionally, former President Jimmy Carter has reiterated this point in both 2008 and 2014 during various interviews and speeches, where he estimated Israel’s nuclear arsenal to be between 150 and 300 warheads.
According to its own policy, Israel neither officially confirms nor denies that it has nuclear weapons. The Israeli strategy of ambiguity, known as ‘Amimut’, is understood as a means to safeguard both Israel and its nuclear program. According to Israeli sources, Amimut comprises two key components:
“(1) maintaining the confidentiality of its nuclear operations, which involves refraining from testing or publicly declaring the possession of nuclear weapons, and (2) enhancing its nuclear profile through strategic leaks, public statements, and speculation, alongside the dissemination of indirect evidence regarding its nuclear capabilities.”
Declassified US State Department documents show that by the end of the 1960s, Israel was nearing the achievement of its nuclear objectives, prompting the involvement of Kissinger and Nixon. A memorandum from the State Department to Kissinger in 1969 stated:
“Intelligence suggests that Israel is swiftly advancing its ability to manufacture and deploy nuclear weapons, with delivery methods including surface-to-surface missiles or aircraft.”
_________
[DOCUMENT: A memorandum from the State Department to Kissinger in 1969 stated, “Intelligence suggests that Israel is swiftly advancing its ability to manufacture and deploy nuclear weapons] (Source: National Security Archive)
_________
Reportedly, President Donald Trump has signed a confidential letter committing to refrain from pressuring Israel to give up its nuclear arsenal. The following featured 2018 report from the New Yorker indicates that Israel sought the approval of the nascent Trump administration for an agreement originally established between Prime Minister Golda Meir and President Richard Nixon. This understanding stipulated that Israel would refrain from declaring, testing, or threatening to utilise nuclear weapons in return for the United States not pressuring Israel to accede to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT).
Israel subsequently included a provision in the secret document stating that the Jewish state would “defend itself, by itself,” indicating that it did not depend on the US nuclear shield due to its own nuclear capabilities. Shockingly, Israel has managed to compel Presidents Clinton, Bush, Obama, and Trump to contravene the Symington and Glenn amendments of the U.S. Arms Export Control Act, which impose limitations on foreign assistance to other nations. As a result, Israel has been the recipient of substantial and most likely illegal foreign aid from the United States…
IMAGE: Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir with US President Richard Nixon, Washington, DC, 1974. (Photo by: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group)
Adam Entous writes for The New Yorker...
How Trump and Three Other U.S. Presidents Protected Israel’s Worst-Kept Secret: Its Nuclear Arsenal
In 1969, President Richard Nixon and Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir reached an understanding: the Israelis would not declare or test their nuclear weapons, and the Americans would not pressure them to sign a landmark nonproliferation treaty.
When a delegation of senior Israeli officials visited the Trump White House on February 13, 2017, they wanted to discuss several issues with their new American counterparts. Topping the list was a secret letter concerning a subject the Israelis had promised the Americans never to discuss publicly—Israel’s undeclared nuclear arsenal. In a recent piece for The New Yorker, I described a tense scene in the West Wing as the Israeli delegation, which included Israel’s Ambassador to the United States, Ron Dermer, tried to get the letter signed by President Donald Trump. By all accounts, the American Administration was eager to please the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, whom Trump had promised to lavish with unprecedented support. But at that chaotic moment, Trump’s aides felt blindsided by the Israeli request. They knew nothing about the existence of any letters and were confused by the sense of urgency coming from the Israelis. The Americans had other pressing concerns—later that day, Michael Flynn, the national-security adviser, would hand in his resignation letter—and they didn’t appreciate feeling as though the Israelis were telling them what to do.
“This is our fuckin’ house,” one of the Americans snapped
The White House’s reaction was understandable. There had been a similar moment of surprise eight years earlier, when Barack Obama became President and received a similar request. The very existence of the letters had been a closely held secret. Only a select group of senior American officials, in three previous Administrations, knew of the letters and how Israeli leaders interpreted them as effectively an American pledge not to press the Jewish state to give up its nuclear weapons so long as it continued to face existential threats in the region. (American officials say the letters weren’t that explicit and fell short of constituting a binding commitment.) When Trump’s aides moved into the White House, they didn’t find any copies of the previous letters left behind by their predecessors. The documents had been sent to the archives. The Israelis, however, had copies.
Israel crossed the nuclear threshold on the eve of the Six Day War, in 1967. At that time, it had three nuclear devices, according to Avner Cohen, a nuclear historian at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey and the author of two books on the origins of Israel’s nuclear program. Israeli efforts to build a bomb at the nuclear complex in Dimona had been a source of tension with Washington for nearly a decade. But, by the fall of 1969, when Golda Meir, Israel’s Prime Minister, met with Richard Nixon at the White House, Israel’s possession of nuclear weapons was a fait accompli and the two sides reached an unwritten understanding: the Israelis would not declare, test, or threaten to use their nuclear weapons; and the Americans would not pressure the Israelis to sign a landmark international nuclear-nonproliferation treaty known as the N.P.T. (Israel never became a signatory and U.S. efforts to inspect Dimona stopped.)
Successive Israeli governments abided by the arrangement, which, in Hebrew, is referred to as “amimut,” which means opacity. In English, the arrangement is often referred to as Israel’s “policy of ambiguity.” A joint document describing the agreement was never prepared. Instead, each side relied on its own notes, a former official said. President Gerald Ford abided by Nixon’s deal. Israeli officials were concerned that Jimmy Carter would chart a different course, but the American position, through the Carter and Reagan Administrations, remained unchanged.
The Israelis first started to feel as though the unwritten Meir-Nixon arrangement was no longer sufficient during the Presidency of George H. W. Bush, when, after the first Gulf War, in 1991, world powers talked about the possibility of creating a zone in the Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear arms.
The first iteration of the secret letter was drafted during the Clinton Administration, as part of an agreement for Israel’s participation in the 1998 Wye River negotiations with the Palestinians. In the letter, according to former officials, President Bill Clinton assured the Jewish state that no future American arms-control initiative would “detract” from Israel’s “deterrent” capabilities, an oblique but clear reference to its nuclear arsenal. Later, Israeli officials inserted language to make clear to Washington that Israel would “defend itself, by itself,” and that it would, therefore, not consider the American nuclear arsenal to be a substitute for Israeli nuclear arms. George W. Bush, when he became President, followed Clinton’s lead, signing a similar letter, former officials told me.
Then, in 2009, a new President, Barack Obama, took office. From almost the start, Netanyahu was distrustful of Obama, and vice versa. “With Obama, we were all crazy,” an Israeli official told me. That April, Obama delivered an aspirational speech in Prague, setting out “America’s commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons.” Obama’s advisers subsequently learned “how paranoid Bibi was that Obama was going to try to take away Israel’s nuclear weapons,” a former U.S. official told me, adding, “Of course, that was never our intent.” Obama signed an updated version of the letter in May, 2009.
While Israeli officials interpreted the letters as an effective commitment by successive American Presidents not to pressure Israel regarding its nuclear arsenal, U.S. officials told me that they viewed the letters as less categorical. “It was not a blanket ‘We’ll never ask Israel to give up its nuclear weapons.’ It was more, ‘We accepted the Israeli argument that they’re not going to disarm under current conditions in the Middle East,” a former U.S. official told me. Avner Cohen, the Middlebury Institute historian, said that U.S. Administrations have been reluctant to give up entirely on the possibility of ridding the region of nuclear weapons if Israel were to reach a comprehensive peace agreement with its neighbors, including Iran.
Ahead of a nonproliferation conference in 2010, Netanyahu became concerned, once again, that Israel could come under international pressure to disarm. In response, Obama made a public statement that echoed the contents of the secret letters, without revealing their existence. “We discussed issues that arose out of the nuclear-nonproliferation conference,” Obama said, after meeting with Netanyahu on July 6, 2010. “And I reiterated to the Prime Minister that there is no change in U.S. policy when it comes to these issues. We strongly believe that, given its size, its history, the region that it’s in, and the threats that are levelled against . . . it, that Israel has unique security requirements. It’s got to be able to respond to threats or any combination of threats in the region. And that’s why we remain unwavering in our commitment to Israel’s security. And the United States will never ask Israel to take any steps that would undermine their security interests.”
The tense scene in the West Wing over the letter came on the heels of a particularly chaotic transition, from Obama to Trump. Their advisers distrusted one another, and it is unclear if they ever discussed the Israeli letters before the Inauguration. So when Ambassador Dermer came to the White House to talk to Michael Flynn about arranging for Trump to sign the letter, Trump’s aides were confused and, initially, said that they needed more time. U.S. officials said that the Israelis wanted to limit who could take part in discussions of the letter, citing the need for secrecy. The Americans pushed back. Afterwards, senior White House officials huddled together and complained to each other that Dermer had acted as though he owned the White House. Dermer declined to comment on the letter and told me that he does not recall any cursing. Flynn was ousted that night. Later, Trump signed the letter, becoming the fourth U.S. President to do so.
Like Obama’s advisers, Trump’s aides were baffled by the importance that Netanyahu placed on getting the letters signed so quickly. Cohen said that the issue is central for Netanyahu because the nuclear arsenal fuels his “sense of impunity, sense of Israel being so powerful, that it can dictate its own terms in the region and beyond.”
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“American Hustlers” hosts Kim Kantner and Julie Golden join podcast contributor Tyson Wrensch to talk about the wild story behind their podcast — and put their true crime knowledge to the test.
“American Hustlers” podcast follows two gay con artists, Kaushal Nuroula and Danny Garcia, who committed crimes from San Francisco to Hawaii to Mexico, each one more unbelievable than the last. They were tracked for years by Tyson Wrench, a citizen detective who vowed to bring them to justice after they emptied his bank accounts. Kaushal and Danny masqueraded as real estate moguls, art dealers, bankers, and even royalty – taking advantage of corruption and weaknesses in the American business structure – the banking system, academia, immigration laws, the private fine-art market, and more. They even conned each other. They were never pursued by law enforcement for their crimes until they committed the one crime they couldn’t con their way out of: murder.
Stream all episodes of the podcast now on Audacy, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts, for the deep dive – and don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more!
The Department of Defense highlighted the importance of military health care with regard to “force lethality” and military readiness in an update shared on Monday.
In an update shared by Military Health System Communications, Stephen Ferrara, who was appointed in January and is currently fulfilling the responsibilities of the assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, emphasized readiness as a “strategic imperative to ensure warfighter dominance, survivability, and resilience.”
“Readiness cannot be secondary,” Ferrara said. “You cannot do readiness at the last minute. You cannot cram for readiness. When it comes to mission success, readiness is everything.”
Ferrara, who was deployed four times as an active-duty surgeon in the U.S. Navy, noted that the Military Health System is the only health care system in the country that “goes to war.”
“When America’s sons and daughters go downrange and go into harm’s way, we honor the pact we made with them and with their parents, that should they become ill or injured, they will receive prompt and effective medical attention anywhere in the world,” Ferrara said. “That is the trust that we have. That’s something that our adversaries don’t always have, and it gives us an incredible strategic edge.”
READ MORE: Video: Pentagon cuts $5.1 billion in ‘wasteful spending’ in new wave of DOGE cuts
Ferrara explained that his top priorities for the Military Health System include providing high-quality, accessible, and sustainable care, increasing the lethality of America’s warfighters, and sustaining the medical force’s skills. Ferrara said, “We have to support the warfighter, sustain our skills and strengthen our chain.”
“If we support, sustain and strengthen, that is how we build a system that will fight and win because fundamentally, this is what our job is: to fight and win,” Ferrara added. “We do this by having a ready medical force so we can provide strong battlefield care and keep guns in the fight.”
According to the Defense Department, Ferrara said part of his job is demonstrating to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth how the Military Health System aligns with the Trump administration’s emphasis on “force lethality.” Ferrara explained that the Military Health System “optimizes warfighter performance” by ensuring the readiness of military service members and the individuals responsible for providing service members with medical care and recovery.
“It starts with maintaining the ready medical force,” Ferrara stated. “We must ensure that every member of the team — from the surgeon who wields a scalpel, to the logistician who procured the scalpel; from the nurse who transfuses the blood, to the team who runs the blood bank — is at the top of their game. A team ready to go downrange to fight and win.”
In a sweeping global crackdown on harmful online content, Google says it blocked or removed 5.1 billion ads and restricted an additional 9.1 billion in 2024, highlighting increasing sophistication in digital scams, including persistent threats in Nigeria.
The announcement was made in the tech giant’s 2024 Ads Safety Report, released on Wednesday.
According to the report, the company also suspended over 39 million advertiser accounts worldwide—many of them before a single ad was shown.
The actions, Google said, were driven by growing reliance on artificial intelligence (AI) to detect and pre-emptively stop deceptive content, from impersonation scams to coordinated misinformation campaigns.
“These improvements helped us move faster, identify threats earlier, and take action before bad actors could reach users,” said Alex Rodriguez, Google’s General Manager for Ads Safety. “That’s the real power of AI—making the internet safer not just reactively, but proactively.”
The company noted that with the digital ecosystem evolving rapidly across Africa and beyond, users are increasingly vulnerable to misinformation, scams, and unsafe content.
Nigeria, in particular, was flagged as one of the countries where Google has been forced to intervene aggressively. The company revealed that public figure impersonation scams and misleading election-related ads have become recurrent issues in the country.
To address this, Google updated its Misrepresentation policy in 2024 and formed a global task force of more than 100 experts to intensify scrutiny of scam-related content. These efforts led to the removal of over 700,000 scam-related advertiser accounts globally, resulting in a 90 per cent decline in reported impersonation scams.
The report also emphasized Google’s focus on protecting electoral integrity. With nearly half the world’s population expected to vote in 2024, the company expanded its political ad transparency program.
All political advertisers are now required to verify their identities and clearly disclose the funding source behind each campaign. More than 10 million election-related ads were taken down for failing to meet these standards.
Though the figures are global, the impact is being felt locally. For Nigeria’s fast-growing digital economy—reliant on online trust and secure transactions—Google’s actions provide a crucial layer of protection for businesses, content creators, and consumers.
The company stressed that safe advertising not only defends users but also ensures a fair environment for legitimate advertisers and publishers.
To scale its oversight while maintaining effectiveness, Google said it deployed over 50 enhancements to its AI models in 2024.
This allowed human teams to concentrate on high-risk investigations, while AI handled broader, automated threat detection.
Beyond technology, Google underscored the importance of collaboration in building a safer online space.
The company said it continues to work with regulators, industry peers, and consumer protection agencies, including through initiatives such as the Global Anti-Scam Alliance, to anticipate and address emerging threats.
“As online threats evolve, we remain committed to keeping users safe and ensuring the integrity of the digital advertising ecosystem,” Rodriguez added.
Google Blocks 5.1 Billion Ads Globally, Blames Threats From Nigeria is first published on The Whistler Newspaper
SAN FRANCISCO – After most games, Jimmy Butler’s voice barely reaches the level of a soft whisper during postgame interviews, barely audible to those straining to hear him.
On the court during Tuesday night, though?
He could be heard, loud and clear, notedly loquacious teammate Draymond Green said after Butler scored 38 points in a 121-116 play-in victory over Memphis in his postseason debut for the Warriors.
“He had not yelled at anybody since he’s been here,” Green said, before adding. “He’s, like, yelling at guys now. Like it’s a totally different person.”
Since arriving from South Beach in February, Butler has been the catalyst for the Warriors’ playoff push.
If there was any foolish doubt that he would shine in the playoffs among so many other stars, that was dismissed on Tuesday night.
It was more of the same for Butler, who has found his voice on the team.
Butler yelled after making tough layups, key defensive stops and rim-rattling dunks that shifted momentum back to a Warriors team in search of championship No. 5 of the Steph Curry-Green-Kerr era.
He also made sure teammates heard him when they were not in the right defensive position, or running the correct offensive set.
“Whenever I talk to Steph and Dray and Steve and Mike (Dunleavy) before I even got here, I was telling them, I can help,” Butler said. “Now, I don’t know in what manner that I can help, but we’re going to make the playoffs.”
Golden State Warriors’ Jimmy Butler III (10) defends against Memphis Grizzlies’ Zach Edey (14) in first quarter of their NBA play-in tournament game at the Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., on Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)
The Houston-area native is now headed back to his hometown, where the seventh-seeded Warriors will take on the No. 2 seed Rockets.
His gaudy point total was his highest this season, one more than Curry’s 37.
Butler shot 12-of-20 from the field, and had seven rebounds, six assists and three steals.
Butler’s higher-volume persona may have been new, but his incredible production in high-stakes games is nothing out of the ordinary.
The 35-year-old forward spent years carrying flawed Miami rosters far beyond reasonable expectations by putting up 30- and 40-point games.
He got to the line 18 times – and chided himself for missing six of those free throws – to help give his team easy points against a spirited Memphis team that refused to fold.
“That’s why he is who he is,” Kerr said. “He’s able to — in these big moments, these big games, he settles you down constantly.”
Butler, who stands at 6-foot-7, was often tasked with guarding Grizzlies post players like the 7-foot-4 Zach Edey and 7-foot forward Santi Aldama.
While Butler said he did not particularly enjoy banging with the bigs on the low block, the team’s defensive cornerstone certainly appreciated his effort.
“Seen it the last few nights where he’s turned it up completely on both sides of the ball,” Green said.
Butler later admitted he prefers to defend wings, but there was no argument that the future Hall of Famer benefited from being marked on the other end by slow-footed centers.
“I feel like I have the opportunity here to pick my spots incredibly well, and they are always looking to get me the ball in my spots where I can be aggressive and put the ball in the basket or make the right play for the next individual,“ Butler said.
That versatility will allow Butler to have an impact in multiple facets of the game against a Houston team that is known for overwhelming athleticism and having even more imposing size on the block.
Overcoming that will be a tall task for Golden State, but Butler likes his chances. After all, how many teams in the Western Conference have two superstars?
“Hell, I think any team has a chance when I’m on the team, but I know that every team has a chance if Steph is on the team,” Butler said.
Golden State Warriors’ Jimmy Butler III (10) is fouled by Memphis Grizzlies’ Jaren Jackson Jr. (13) in third quarter of their NBA play-in tournament game at the Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., on Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)
It was quite a surprise announcement when Capcom revealed the Capcom Fighting Collection 2, especially considering that it’s been nearly three years since the first Capcom Fighting Collection was released.
Capcom Fighting Collection series and Street Fighter series producer Shuhei Matsumoto recently sat down for an interview with Famitsu to discuss these collections. During this interview, he revealed why these collections were made in the first place.
“How about we start by talking about what led to the first compilation, Capcom Fighting Collection, being released,” begun Famitsu.
“Capcom released a really large amount of fun fighting games back in the day. So because of that, people would definitely want to play them on modern hardware and with online capabilities, right? That’s what we were thinking.” — Shuhei Matsumoto
“Capcom released a really large amount of fun fighting games back in the day. So because of that, people would definitely want to play them on modern hardware and with online capabilities, right?” responded Matsumoto.
“That’s what we were thinking. We’d been feeling that for a long time and the last compilation was us finally being able to put those feelings into reality.”
The first collection consisted of Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors, Night Warriors: Darkstalkers’ Revenge, Vampire Savior: The Lord of Vampire, Vampire Hunter 2: Darkstalkers’ Revenge, Vampire Savior 2: The Lord of Vampire, Red Earth, Cyberbots: Fullmetal Madness, Hyper Street Fighter 2, Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix, and Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo.
Of course, this meant that half the collection was devoted to the Darkstalkers series. Famitsu would make mention of this during the interview.
“In the first game, it really felt like the Darkstalkers series was the main focus, but what was your basis for selecting the included titles?” continued Famitsu.
“We started from the assumption ‘the Darkstalkers series is what people mainly want to play on modern hardware, right?’ And then we really wanted to include Pocket Fighter and Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo, ha ha,” said Matsumoto.
“Also, the development team said ‘Let’s bring this one over!!’ for Red Earth so we included it.”
Of course, this mindset also carried over into the development of the Capcom Fighting Collection 2. There were certain games that were becoming older that the developers wanted to see on more modern consoles.
“There’s still a lot of games we want to bring over to modern hardware, so that made us think ‘Now we HAVE to make a 2 as well, right?’” — Shuhei Matsumoto
“And how did that lead to this current Capcom Fighting Collection 2?” asked Famitsu.
“There’s still a lot of games we want to bring over to modern hardware, so that made us think ‘Now we HAVE to make a 2 as well, right?’” said Matsumoto.
This second collection consists of Capcom vs. SNK: Millennium Fight 2000 Pro, Capcom vs. SNK 2: Mark of the Millennium 2001, Capcom Fighting Evolution, Street Fighter Alpha 3 Upper, Power Stone, Power Stone 2, Project Justice, and Plasma Sword: Nightmare of Bilstein.
A special thanks goes out to Nicholas “MajinTenshinhan” Taylor for the translations featured in this article.
The Gospel contains a great message of hope, “because it tells us that wherever we are lost and however we are lost, God always comes looking for us!” said the text for Pope Francis’ weekly general audience.
“We are able to hope because we know that the Father is waiting for us,” he wrote in the text for his audience April 16. “He sees us from afar and he always leaves the door open.”
While Pope Francis was not holding his general audiences since he was still recovering from double pneumonia and multiple infections, the Vatican has been publishing the texts prepared for the event each Wednesday.
During the Holy Year 2025, the pope’s audiences have focused on “Jesus Christ our hope.” After his series looking at Gospel stories of Jesus’ encounters with different people and how meeting him changed their lives, the April 16 text began a new series looking at some parables and how they encourage the faithful to consider, “Where am I in this story?”
The first installment focused on St. Luke’s account of Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son, which portrays “the heart of the Gospel of Jesus, namely God’s mercy,” the pope wrote.
Jesus tells this parable and the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin to “the Pharisees and the scribes, who lamented that he ate with sinners,” Pope Francis wrote. “This is why it could be said that it is a parable addressed to those who are lost, but do not know it, and judge others.”
“The Gospel is intended to give us a message of hope” because it says whenever a child of God is lost, God is seeking or waiting for him or her, he wrote.
“Love is always a commitment, there is always something that we must lose in order to go toward the other,” the pope’s text said.
The younger son in the parable thinks only of himself, which can be seen in some people who “are unable to maintain a relationship because they are selfish,” he wrote. Instead of “finding” themselves by running off, they lose themselves “because only when we live for someone do we truly live.”
“This younger son, like all of us, hungers for affection; he wants to be loved. But love is a precious gift; it must be treated with care. Instead, he squanders it, he disregards it, he does not respect himself” and makes himself vulnerable to a slavelike relationship for affection, he wrote.
“Only those who truly love us can free us from this false view of love,” he wrote.
The pope praised Rembrandt’s 17th-century painting, “The Return of the Prodigal Son,” for how the painter depicted the young man with a shorn head, “like that of a penitent,” but also like a child, “because this son is being born again. And then the father’s hands: one male and the other female, to describe the strength and tenderness in the embrace of forgiveness.”
However, the pope wrote, Jesus tells this parable to those whom the eldest son represents — the one who always stayed at home with his father, yet was distant from him in his heart.
“This son may have wanted to leave, too, but out of fear or duty, he stayed there in that relationship,” the pope wrote. “Paradoxically, it is precisely the eldest son who in the end risks being left out because he does not share his father’s joy.”
“The father goes toward him, too. He does not reproach him or call him to duty. He wants only that he feels his love. He invites him to enter and to leave the door open,” the pope wrote.
Pope Francis asked the faithful to consider “where we are in this wonderful tale and let us ask God the Father for the grace that we too can find our way back home.”
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Encourage our existing customers into recurring purchases.
Track sales performance and compare the results to our established goals (daily, weekly, monthly, and annually)
Present performance analysis results to superiors to help with future product design and sales and marketing strategies (which products performed best and which consumer group bought them the most).
Manage sales point inventory—determine inventory needs of every sales point and organize restocks.
Ensure customer satisfaction by responding to customer support tickets and complaints from resellers
Planning, developing, training and empowering existing down line human resources to take on additional and higher responsibilities.
IMAGE: Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir with US President Richard Nixon, Washington, DC, 1974. (Photo by: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group)
