Holy Year about to start in Rome
Voice of America
FILE - Pope Francis opens the Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Dec. 8, 2015. FILE - Pope Francis pushes open the Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica, formally launching the Holy Year of Mercy, at the Vatican, Dec. 8, 2015. FILE - Pope Francis walks inside the Paliano detention center, south of Rome, April 13, 2017.
Pope Francis on Tuesday formally inaugurates the 2025 Holy Year, reviving an ancient church tradition encouraging the faithful to make pilgrimages to Rome, amid new security fears following a Christmas market attack in Germany.
France's newly appointed Prime Minister Francois Bayrou looks on after the handover ceremony at the Hotel Matignon , the Prime Minister residence, in Paris, Dec. 13, 2024.
FILE - Families with young children pose for photos in Beijing, Feb. 13, 2021. Struggling with an aging population and declining birth rates, China is trying to shift its population policies to avert a demographic crisis.
Pope Francis presides over the Christmas Eve Mass in St. Peter's Basilica at The Vatican, Dec. 24, 2024, after opening the basilica's Holy Door marking the start of the Catholic jubilar year 2025. Pope Francis presides over the Christmas Eve Mass in St. Peter's Basilica at The Vatican, Dec. 24, 2024, after opening the basilica's holy door marking the start of the Catholic jubilar year 2025. Pope Francis opens the Holy Door to mark the opening of the 2025 Catholic Holy Year, or Jubilee, in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Dec. 24, 2024. The first pilgrims pass through after Pope Francis opened the Holy Door to mark the opening of the 2025 Catholic Holy Year, or Jubilee, in St. Peter's Basilica, at the Vatican, Dec. 24, 2024.
Screenshot of an X post showing bounty notice for Carmen Lau.
Loraine Mwanza, chairperson of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), speaks at the launch of the USAID-Funded MISA Freedom of Expression Report at the Protea Hotel in Lusaka, Dec. 17, 2024. (Kathy Short for VOA)
FILE - Former members of Syria's Bashar al-Assad's security forces wait in line to register for the identification and reconciliation process, after the ousting of al-Assad, in Aleppo, Syria, Dec. 23, 2024.
FILE - Police officers detain Alesya Marokhovskaya of the Vazhniye Istorii news outlet outside the Russia's Justice Ministry. The banner reads: "There are no foreign agents, there are journalists," in Moscow, Sept. 8, 2021.
Japan's Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba poses for photographs as he arrives for a press conference at the prime minister's office in Tokyo on Dec. 24, 2024.
FILE - Orphans and children separated from their parents in Kadugli gather to eat boiled leaves at an IDP Camp within the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) controlled area in Boram County, Nuba Mountains, South Kordofan, June 22, 2024. FILE - A WFP worker stands next to a truck carrying aid from Port Sudan to Darfur and other famine-stricken parts of Sudan, Nov. 12, 2024. (WFP/Abubakar Garelnabei/Handout via Reuters)
FILE - Students attend a class on media literacy at the Hiidenkiven Koulu school on November 19, 2024 in Helsinki, Finland. In Finland -- a country consistently ranked Europe's most media literate -- the skills needed to spot online hoaxes are on the school curriculum, amidst a boom of mis- and disinformation campaigns.
FILE - A flag of Shiite group Sayyid al-Shuhada is placed on the wall of the U.S. Embassy during a protest, in Baghdad, Iraq, Dec. 31, 2019.