Paradise News

Tag: World

  • Educating Men on Menstrual Equity

    PeopleImages.com – Yuri A // Shutterstock
    Written by Sandra Lindsay for Northwell Health

    When a well-read, analytical, and endlessly curious friend recently confessed ignorance to what period poverty is, I became aware of how widespread it is for this problem to be overlooked. You see, my friend is also a brilliant physician. We have rich, open-ended, insightful conversations that always leave me thinking.  

    I told him about my recent trips to Jamaica, where I met with women undergoing hysterectomies due to severe fibroids. Burdened by debilitating health issues, these women told me how heavy menstrual bleeding had caused them years of emotional and financial stress. They faced a “choice” between purchasing food and other family essentials or purchasing period products. Unable to afford the latter, they missed work, lost jobs, lost social connections, and faced deep isolation. The ripple effects of period poverty had taken a devastating toll on their lives and livelihoods.

    I finished sharing my experience when my friend leaned back and, genuinely puzzled, asked, “What is period poverty?”  

    At first, I thought he was joking. But as I began to explain it to him, I heard both shock and empathy in his voice. I know he considers himself to be a proud, well-informed, and aware “girl dad.”

    His response was a reminder of how wide the informational gap is regarding menstrual equity and how deep the roots of this problem run. Silence around menstruation is a social norm fed by a lack of knowledge, systemic failures perpetuated by cultural taboos, and overall societal silence. It has created an unacceptable blind spot.

    It’s unacceptable because period poverty affects millions of women and girls globally, including 2 out of 5 women in the United States. In Jamaica, where I grew up, 44% of the female population are affected and 20% of girls miss school because they lack access to period products.

    In many societies, menstruation is treated as a private, almost shameful, experience. Stigma discourages open conversations, especially between genders. Schools often fail to include menstrual health in their curriculum and, if they do, content focuses on girls and leaves boys uninformed. Government policies and educational programs often exclude menstrual equity, reinforcing the idea that the issue is not a priority. The added assumption and ignorance around menstruation being solely a “female issue” keeps men from engaging with the topic, further perpetuating the longstanding, painful silence.

    After doing his own research, my friend returned to me apologetic and embarrassed. His ignorance was not malicious, but a product of societal shortcomings. Since our conversation, he has become an avid supporter and promoter of my Dignity for All initiative, which addresses period poverty in my homeland and ensures menstruation is not an obstacle to getting an education.

    Men need to be more than supporters; they must become allies. Those men who occupy positions of influence and critical decision-making about funding, policy, and education have a responsibility to speak openly about menstruation. I’m asking men to normalize conversations about periods and menstrual poverty to reduce the senseless shame associated with it. Every father, brother, uncle, partner, and friend can help unburden women who may be living with that shame, or with period poverty.  

    My friend’s transformation from ignorance to advocacy is proof that men can be effective allies when they are informed and empowered. Menstruation is not a “female” issue, but a societal one.  

    I encourage all men and boys to educate themselves as my friend did so bravely, to ask the women in their lives about their experiences and advocate for menstrual equity in their communities and workplaces. Let’s challenge the silence so we might transform ignorance into action and period poverty into menstrual equity.

    Sandra Lindsay, DHSc, MBA, RN, is the vice president of public health advocacy for Northwell Health.

    Source: Seattle Medium

  • US military reducing number of troops in Syria to under 1,000

    The Pentagon announced on Friday that President Donald Trump’s administration is reducing the number of U.S. troops in Syria to “less than a thousand” in the “coming months.”

    In a Friday statement released by the Department of Defense, Sean Parnell, chief spokesman for the Pentagon, said, “Recognizing the success the United States has had against ISIS, including its 2019 territorial defeat under President Trump, today the Secretary of Defense directed the consolidation of U.S. forces in Syria under Combined Joint Task Force — Operation Inherent Resolve to select locations in Syria.”

    Parnell explained that the “consolidation” of U.S. forces in Syria is a reflection of the “significant steps” the U.S. military has taken “toward degrading ISIS’ appeal and operational capability regionally and globally.”

    While the Pentagon did not announce how many U.S. troops would be withdrawn from Syria as part of the reduction of U.S. forces in Syria, The New York Times reported on Thursday that roughly 600 U.S. troops would be withdrawn from Syria under the Trump administration.

    READ MORE: US military pulling out of key Polish hub for Ukraine aid

    “This deliberate and conditions-based process will bring the U.S. footprint in Syria down to less than a thousand U.S. forces in the coming months,” Parnell said in Friday’s statement.

    “As this consolidation takes place, consistent with President Trump’s commitment to peace through strength, U.S. Central Command will remain poised to continue strikes against the remnants of ISIS in Syria,” Parnell added. “We will also work closely with capable and willing Coalition partners to maintain pressure on ISIS and respond to any other terrorist threats that arise.”

    Despite ordering the reduction of the U.S. military’s presence in Syria, Parnell emphasized that the Department of Defense “continues to maintain a significant amount of capability in the region and the ability to make dynamic force posture adjustments based on evolving security situations on the ground.”

    In December, former Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters that the number of U.S. troops in Syria was much higher than the Biden-Harris administration had previously reported. While the Biden-Harris administration had initially reported that approximately 900 U.S. troops had been deployed to Syria, Ryder noted that roughly 2,000 U.S. troops had actually been deployed to Syria.


    Source: American Military News

  • Ex-Kaduna Punch Correspondent Dies After Long Battle With Stroke

    Stanley Yakubu, a veteran journalist and former Kaduna State Correspondent of The PUNCH newspaper, has died.

    According to family members, Yakubu passed away peacefully in his sleep on Monday in Kaduna.

    Yakubu’s daughter, Sandra, confirmed the news, saying her father had been unwell for some time.

    His health issues began after the loss of his wife over a decade ago, which reportedly left him devastated.

    He subsequently suffered a stroke that worsened over time, ultimately leading to his passing.

    Colleagues and friends of the late journalist paid tribute to his remarkable career and legacy.

    Ibrahim Modibbo, a friend, described Yakubu’s passing as a significant loss to the journalism fraternity.

    “On a sad note, we have lost one of our own,” Modibbo said, recalling their time as young journalists in the 1990s.

    Another friend and colleague shared fond memories of Yakubu’s time as a journalist, highlighting his dedication to the profession.

    “We were wild and free; we stung like bees. Most of all, we stuck together like a band of brothers,” the friend said, reminiscing about their experiences covering news in Gongola/Adamawa States.

    Yakubu’s friend also spoke about his personal life, noting that he had married a woman from Kaltungo and had a daughter who survives him.

    “Stanley lost his wife more than a decade ago. It devastated him. He then had a stroke. It became worse. And today he gave up,” the friend added, praying for Yakubu’s gentle soul and expressing condolences to his family.

    THE WHISTLER reports that tributes poured in for Yakubu, celebrating his life, work, and legacy as a respected journalist.

    Ex-Kaduna Punch Correspondent Dies After Long Battle With Stroke is first published on The Whistler Newspaper

    Source: The Whistler

  • Liz Anjorin reacts to claims she is jealous of Iyabo Ojo’s daughter’s wedding (video)

    Nollywood actress Lizzy Anjorin has reacted to claims that she is jealous of her colleague and arch rival, Iyabo Ojo, who over the weekend hosted a talk-of-the-town wedding for her only daughter, Priscilla.

     

    Lizzy and Iyabo have been enemies for the longest and have even dragged themselves to court. Following the success of Iyabo’s daughter’s wedding to Tanzanian singer, Juma Jux, many social media users stormed Lizzy’s page to taunt her. They claim she is jealous of Priscilla and the lavish she had.

     

    Responding to her critics, Lizzy in a video shared on Instagram this evening, asked what is there not to love about the wedding. In her words,

    ‘’Let’s forget about the mother. Let’s face the daughter. who will ever hate such a wedding? who dares to hate such a wedding? do we want to talk about how focused that lady is? how determined she is? The happiness of every mother is to have a daughter that will work along with you regardless of who you are. whether you are a thief, a blackmailer, a destroyer or rich as a mother, every mother prays for a child that always thinks along with the mother. 

    I have said it that because you are destroying me does not mean I am going to destroy you in return. You guys are trying to destroy me but instead God is using you to promote me’

    Speaking further, she said

    ‘’Who will hate such a wedding? a wedding that they did not tell us any negative thing about the wife or the husband or about the mother in-law or the father in-law? So tell me what you want to hate about that wedding? If we are talking about the wife, she has been on her own, been a very beautiful girl.. she has maintained her lane” she said

    Watch the video of Lizzy speaking below…

     

     

     

     

    Source: Linda Ikeji

  • Tragedy deepens in Lagos as building collapse death toll climbs to seven

    The devastating aftermath of the three-storey building collapse in the Ojodu-Berger area of Lagos has worsened, with the death toll now reaching seven.

    This grim figure follows the recovery of two additional bodies from the wreckage on Monday afternoon.

    Rescue efforts, involving the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA), Lagos State Fire and Rescue Service, Nigeria Police, and other relevant agencies, have been ongoing since the building, which housed an eatery, suddenly crumbled on Saturday morning. Initially, five bodies had been retrieved from the debris.

    Read also: Vatican Releases Death Certificate: Pope Francis died of stroke, heart failure

    As of 1:00 p.m. on Monday, emergency teams remained at the site, painstakingly working to clear the substantial rubble. The critical question of whether more victims remain trapped beneath the collapsed structure continues to loom large.

    The sudden and catastrophic collapse of the building on Saturday resulted in the immediate deaths of two individuals, while others sustained injuries. The subsequent days have been marked by relentless rescue and recovery operations.

    Source: Ripples Nigeria

  • Florida Bill Proposes Funding Cuts for AP Courses

    Advocates warn that legislation to slash funding for Advanced Placement could make educational disparities worse for already underrepresented Black students. (Photo Credit: Goodboy Picture Company / gettyimages)

    by Quintessa Williams

    What happens in Florida rarely stays in Florida when it comes to education policy. Now, as the state’s lawmakers advance legislation that would slash state funding for college-level high school courses by half, education advocates are sounding the alarm that the move could deepen educational and racial inequities nationwide.

    In early April, the Florida House introduced a bill, House Bill 5101, that would reduce state support for Advanced Placement courses, International Baccalaureate programs, dual enrollment, and career and technical education by up to 50%. 

    Black students already have less access to AP, the most academically rigorous classes, essential for admission to the nation’s most selective colleges and universities. If students can score a three or higher on an AP course’s corresponding exam, they are, depending on the school, eligible to receive college credit. It’s no wonder, then, that advocates say the AP program has helped level the college admissions playing field.

    If the bill passes, cash-strapped school districts across the state—especially those serving low-income and predominantly Black communities—could be forced to reduce or eliminate AP and other advanced coursework altogether. The legislation would also eliminate funding for teacher bonuses, testing fees, and instructional materials that schools depend on to offer these programs.

    “It’s truly another stab at public education,” says Yasmina White, a parent leader and education advocate in Jacksonville, Florida. “It’s being set up to dismantle public schools. And it’s heartbreaking.”

    And White worries that this legislation to effectively defund AP could signal a national trend. “Once Florida does it, others will follow,” White says, noting that Texas has already cited Florida as a model. “We’re already seeing how these talking points travel.”

    Cutting Already Unequal Access

    For decades, AP classes have provided access to college course credit, scholarships, and vital academic prep for students who often don’t have access to resources like private tutoring or legacy admissions. 

    Florida’s House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell, a Democrat from Tampa, recently spoke up against the cuts, pointing out that AP classes were instrumental to her “personal dream of attending Harvard University” coming true. Her Florida high school “paid for our AP classes, and coming from a family of six that was on a salary of a teacher and my dad who worked at Publix, I don’t know that we could have afforded those.”

    Once at Harvard, the academic rigor of her high school AP courses enabled Driskell to place out of introductory classes at Harvard, “even though she came from a public school in little humble Polk County.” 

    That’s an AP class success story worth celebrating, but it’s out of reach for most Black students. Although Black students make up 15% of the K–12 population, College Board data from 2024 shows that only 11% participated in AP courses, compared to 19% of white students and 50% of Asian American students. 

    White has also seen firsthand how AP classes and other advanced coursework programs have prepared Black students for college.

    “I’ve seen so many friends, colleagues, and family members take AP classes, be in IB programs, and do dual enrollment — and it made a difference,” she says. “But when you cut these programs, you cut access. 

    A visualized bar graph showing disparities between high school enrollment and representation in AP and dual enrollment programs by race and ethnicity, according to the Department of Education’s Civil Rights Data Collection 2021-22. The chart highlights underrepresentation among Black students in advanced coursework and dual enrollment.

    This isn’t the first time AP courses have come under attack in Florida. In 2023, under the leadership of Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), the Florida Department of Education rejected the AP African American Studies course, saying it was “inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly lacks educational value.” Other conservative-led states soon followed suit, leading College Board, which administers the Advanced Placement program, to revise the curriculum.

    In an email to Word In Black, College Board said it is “closely monitoring” what’s happening in Florida. It acknowledged “districts are concerned about the potential impact” of Florida’s legislation. However, they also pointed out that, over the years, educators and districts across the state have worked closely with them to ensure access to AP. 

    Ultimately, College Board said it remains “committed to working with schools and districts to ensure continued access to AP opportunities.”  

    What’s Next?

    Nevertheless, some districts have started planning course reductions, while others are urging families to contact state legislators and local school board members before it’s too late.

    “Start local and ask questions,” White says. “Don’t stay in that mindset that things will never change — because thinking that way ensures they won’t.”

    White also encourages people not to be discouraged: “Stay engaged. Stay involved. Keep accessing these programs and telling your story,” she says. “We are living through our own civil rights movement. The people before us had far less and still fought. We can too.”

    Source: Seattle Medium

  • This One Weird Trick Let D.C. Judges Stage A Coup

    This One Weird Trick Let D.C. Judges Stage A Coup

    The D.C. Circuit Court shadow government

    By Daniel Greenfield

    The Supreme Court’s ruling in J.G.G. v. Donald J. Trump was not an unqualified triumph for the Trump administration’s deportations of foreign gang members, but it was a definite rebuke not just to Judge Boasberg, but to the entire D.C. Circuit Court shadow government.

    The ACLU filed J.G.G. v. Trump in defense of five Venezuelan inmates in New York and Texas. All of the men claimed that they were not gang members and there was no indication that any of them were being deported, denying them any actual standing for coming before the court.

    Especially before Judge James Boasberg who is thousands of miles away in Washington D.C.

    Despite the lack of standing and the case being filed in the wrong venue, Judge James Boasberg, the chief judge of the D.C. Circuit Court, not only blocked the deportation of all gang members back to Venezuela, but ordered that planes currently over international airspace that were carrying gang members turn around and bring them back to the United States.

    Boasberg fumed that the planes were not turned around on his mere word and threatened the Justice Department with repercussions for not recognizing his power over not only the entire country, but also the entire planet.

    But why was a judge from the D.C. Circuit Court on a case involving inmates in Texas?

    The answer is that leftist organizations and the judges of the D.C. Circuit Court were using one weird trick to seize power over the entire country (if not always the planet) and transform themselves into a shadow government able to block any Trump administration move.

    The Supreme Court’s ruling vacating Boasberg’s order stated that, “the detainees are confined in Texas, so venue is improper in the District of Columbia” and directed that the appropriate “venue lies in the district of confinement”. So how did a D.C. judge ever get involved at all?

    In Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s concurrence he noted that the “only question is where that judicial review should occur. That venue question turns on whether these transfer claims belong in habeas corpus proceedings or instead may be brought under the Administrative Procedure Act.” The Supreme Court’s ruling even noted that “initially the detainees sought relief in habeas among other causes of action, but they dismissed their habeas claims” and stated that “their claims fall within the ‘core’ of the writ of habeas corpus and thus must be brought in habeas.”

    Kavanaugh then laid out a brief history of detainees, including those terrorists at Gitmo, bringing claims under habeas corpus rather than, strangely, under the Administrative Procedure Act.

    The Administrative Procedure Act had been created in response to the rise of a vast unaccountable government bureaucracy under FDR. The APA was supposed to stop the administrative state from turning into exactly the kind of self-governing machine it grew into which FDR had described as threatening to “develop a fourth branch of government for which there is no sanction in the Constitution.” It was not meant to block presidents from executing their policies or subject every one of those policies to the review of the D.C. Circuit Court.

    The D.C. Circuit Court however has enabled every leftist ‘resistance’ group to go ‘judge shopping’ and file APA complaints to block anything and everything President Trump does.

    And so the ACLU appealed to the D.C. Circuit Court, wielding the Administrative Procedure Act, to challenge the question of whether President Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act (which predated the APA by 148 years) applied and what could be defined as wartime. The ACLU was asking Boasberg to block President Trump’s use of presidential powers based on an act meant to check bureaucratic overreach. And Judge Boasberg went ahead and tried to seize control of U.S. forces abroad from President Trump in the name of an act meant to regulate agencies.

    The Supreme Court’s response to this unconstitutional abomination was milder than it deserved.

    What gave the ACLU and Boasberg the idea that they could get away with it? The ACLU had previously sued the Trump administration for removing materials falsely describing the existence of a ‘transgender’ society as a violation of the “Administrative Procedure Act” by “removing articles without a reasoned basis” as if that were a matter subject to the APA.

    In another case, ‘Judge’ Ana Reyes, a Uruguayan activist lawyer appointed by Biden as the first gay ‘Latinx’ judge in the D.C. Circuit Court, blocked the removal of mentally ill individuals who hallucinate the idea that they are members of some other sex than their biological one, by claiming that it’ss “soaked in animus and dripping with pretext, Its language is unabashedly demeaning, its policy stigmatizes transgender persons as inherently unfit” and argued, despite the mountain of evidence, that the Department of Defense had “not provided a legitimate reason for banning all transgender troops” and therefore violated the Administrative Procedure Act.

    Reyes had confused the Administrative Procedure Act with her own personal opinion and rather than ruling on the legality of a policy based on actual laws, abused the APA to seize power over the Pentagon to promote her own favored social and sexual worldviews in the APA’s name.

    But the Supreme Court has begun shooting down some APA abuses.

    In its response to a Biden judge in Massachusetts blocking the Trump administration from ending education grants that violate its ban on DEI, the court noted that Judge Myong Joun and the court “lacked jurisdiction to order the payment of money under the APA” and that monetary cases involving the government are supposed to go to the Court of Federal Claims.

    The APA has become a favored weapon of choice whether the issue at hand is financial, foreign policy, deporting illegal aliens or even publishing materials about the existence of transgenderism on government websites. During the first term of the administration, leftist groups had taken to boasting of having entire “teams of APA litigators and experts”.

    And with a 93% loss rate for the Trump administration in APA cases, the judicial coup was a sound strategy. All a leftist judge had to do was declare that the Trump administration’s actions were “poorly reasoned” or lacked “sufficient rationale” and would override the president’s orders.

    The APA enabled a massive shift of power from the executive branch to district courts, and to the D.C. Circuit Court which had seized virtually unlimited power from both the president and local courts and judges in the process creating an unelected shadow government.

    But the D.C. judicial shadow government overreached itself. And Boasberg’s attempt to seize presidential powers has created a constitutional moment of crisis that may unwind the coup.

    ***

    Daniel Greenfield is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. This article previously appeared at the Center’s Front Page Magazine.

    _________

    SOURCE

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  • Idaho teen with autism dies after he’s repeatedly shot by police

     An Idaho teenager with autism who was hospitalized for a week after being shot by police died over the weekend.

    The Bannock County Coroner’s Office confirmed to the Idaho Statesman that Victor Perez, who was physically impaired, died after four officers from the Pocatello Police Department shot him several times outside his home last week.

    His family took him off of life support Saturday after testing showed he didn’t have any brain activity, The Associated Press reported. He was 17. The Bannock County Coroner is expected to perform an autopsy.

    “Those police broke our family,” his aunt, Ana Vasquez, told the AP. “There is no way to explain the pain that we are feeling right now. It’s like our hearts are kind of empty — it’s not full anymore.”

    The shooting has sparked outrage in the eastern Idaho city after video footage circulated on social media, and showed four officers opening fire on Victor behind a fence. The incident began a little before 5:30 p.m. Saturday, April 5, after a neighbor called 911 to report a man wielding a knife in the yard of a Pocatello home. Within 20 seconds of arriving, the four officers opened fire, striking the male, later identified as 17-year-old Victor.

    Video footage of the shooting taken by the neighbor showed the four officers get out of their vehicles, draw their guns, line up behind the yard’s chain link fence — which was between them and the teen — and yell at him to drop his weapon.

    Victor began to stand up as the officers approached the yard, but before he could take more than two steps toward them, they fired their guns.

    Victor’s family told the AP that barely any of the officers spoke to nearby family members before firing. The neighbor on the 911 call said Victor looked intoxicated. If police had stopped to ask a question, they would have learned that he wasn’t intoxicated but instead staggering because of his cerebral palsy, his aunt said.

    “Everybody was trying to tell the police, ‘No, no,’” Vazquez told the AP. “Those four officers didn’t care. They didn’t ask what was happening, what was the situation.”

    “How’s he going to jump the fence when he can barely walk?” she said.

    In the week since Victor was shot, community members have held protests calling for police accountability and a candlelight vigil outside the Portneuf Medical Center in Pocatello to mourn the teenage boy. More than 5,500 people have also signed a Change.org petition calling for an independent investigation into the shooting as of Monday afternoon.

    Pocatello Police Chief Roger Schei said at a news conference that the officers gave “repeated commands” to Victor to drop the knife. He said the teen didn’t comply, stood up, and advanced toward the officers “while still armed.”

    “In situations like this, officers must make decisions in seconds, they assess threats not just to themselves but to those nearby,” Schei said. “In this case, two individuals were within a few feet of an armed noncompliant individual. The risk was immediate, and the situation rapidly evolving.”

    Prosecutor to decide whether to release officers’ names

    Per the city’s policy, all of the officers, who haven’t been identified, were placed on administrative leave immediately after the shooting, Pocatello Mayor Brian Blad said in a statement.

    It’s unclear how long the officers will remain on leave. The Pocatello Police Department didn’t respond to several phone calls or an email seeking clarity.

    The Bannock County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the shooting as part of the Eastern Idaho Critical Incident Task Force. Police are also conducting an internal investigation, Schei said.

    For many law enforcement agencies in Idaho, police shootings are investigated through a Critical Incident Task Force, or CITF. In East Idaho, over a dozen counties are involved in the task force, and when one agency is involved in a shooting, another agency is asked to step in and investigate the incident.

    Once the investigation is complete, it will be handed over to an outside prosecutor to review the findings and decide whether the officers should face criminal charges. A prosecutor hasn’t been assigned yet, Emma Iannacone, a spokesperson for the county, told the Statesman.

    Iannacone said it would be up to the prosecutor to release the officers’ names. Body-camera footage is expected to be released in the coming weeks, Blad said.

    It’s rare for officers to be criminally charged following a shooting. In the last 20 years, only two law enforcement officers in Idaho — Idaho Falls Police Department Officer Elias Cerdas and Nez Perce Tribal Officer Robert Wall — faced criminal charges. Both cases were eventually dismissed.

    Blad said the city’s addressing the incident “with the seriousness and thoroughness it deserves.”

    “We truly recognize the difficulty and pain of this situation,” Blad said. “Everyone is looking for answers, including me and the City Council. That is why it is important to let the Eastern Idaho Critical Incident Task Force and others complete their investigations.”

    “Once the investigations are complete, we will act in accordance with the findings. No determinations will be made until the independent investigators have done their job,” he added.

    ___

    © 2025 The Idaho Statesman.

    Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.


    Source: American Military News

  • JUST IN: Vatican Reveals Pope’s Last Wishes, Cause Of Death

    Pope Francis died on Easter Monday at the age of 88 after suffering a stroke that led to a coma and “irreversible” heart failure, according to his death certificate released by the Vatican.

    His passing comes nearly a month after being discharged from a five-week hospital stay where he was treated for pneumonia.

    The Vatican made the announcement Monday, accompanied by the release of the Pope’s final testament, in which he detailed his final wishes regarding his burial.

    In the handwritten document, Pope Francis expressed a deep and lifelong devotion to the Virgin Mary and requested to be buried at the Basilica of Saint Mary Major in Rome. His wish is a departure from tradition, as many of his predecessors are buried at St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican.

    “As I sense the approaching twilight of my earthly life, and with firm hope in eternal life, I wish to set out my final wishes solely regarding the place of my burial,” the Pope wrote.

    He noted that Saint Mary Major had long held personal significance, as it was his custom to pray there at the beginning and end of every apostolic journey.

    His wish is for a simple tomb, without ornamentation, bearing only the Latin inscription “Franciscus”. The tomb is to be placed in the side aisle between the Pauline Chapel and the Sforza Chapel, as outlined in a plan attached to his testament.

    The Pope also noted that the cost of the burial would be covered by a benefactor and that arrangements had already been made with Cardinal Rolandas Makrickas, Commissioner of the Liberian Basilica.

    He concluded his testament with a message of peace, saying, “The suffering that has marked the final part of my life, I offer to the Lord for peace in the world and fraternity among peoples.”

    Pope Francis served as the 266th pontiff and was the first Jesuit and Latin American pope.

    JUST IN: Vatican Reveals Pope’s Last Wishes, Cause Of Death is first published on The Whistler Newspaper

    Source: The Whistler

  • Gospel Artists are in Music to Make Money Just Like Afrobeats Stars – Spyro

    Nigerian singer, Spyro, recently sparked debate by saying gospel artists are in the business to make money just like Afrobeats stars. 

     

    On Hiptv’s Trending show, he stated; “The people that claim to be gospel artists or gospel ministers are just artists — they are in the business to make money just like us in the Afrobeats industry”.

     

    Fans reacted with mixed opinions. @MusicLover23 tweeted, “Finally, someone said it! Gospel artists work hard and deserve to be paid like any other musicians. It’s a business, not just a ministry.” 

     

    Another user, @NaijaBeatsFan, added, “Spyro is right. Producing gospel music involves costs and effort. Why should gospel artists not make money when Afrobeats stars do?” 

     

    Meanwhile, @FaithFirst commented, “Gospel music is about spreading God’s word, not chasing money. This kind of mindset could ruin the purity of the gospel.” 

     

    Similarly, @SpiritualVoice wrote, “I respect Spyro, but gospel artists should prioritise ministry over money. The focus should be on souls, not sales”.

     

    Spyro also praised female artists like Tems for maintaining decency despite industry pressure, saying, “There is a lot of pressure on female artists to do crazy things. Tems is holding it down decently yet she is one of the biggest female artists in the world right now. She is decent. She has it together”.

     

     

    Source: Linda Ikeji