Global Pulse

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  • Weekly quiz: Which tennis star dazzled the French Open with an ‘Eiffel Tower’ dress?

    Weekly quiz: Which tennis star dazzled the French Open with an ‘Eiffel Tower’ dress?

    The past seven days have brought a string of high-profile headlines across vastly different sectors, capturing public attention in fragmented waves. First, new developments in the widely discussed *Married At First Sight UK* controversy have emerged this week, with more behind-the-scenes details of the on-screen scandal coming into public view.

    In a separate, more serious political development, Peter Murrell, the former chief executive of the Scottish National Party (SNP), has pled guilty to embezzling more than £400,000 in funds from the party, a revelation that has sent ripples through Scottish political circles.

    Meanwhile, in Australia, a planned celebratory drone light display over Sydney’s iconic Darling Harbour went dramatically awry when nearly 90 of the participating unmanned aerial vehicles crashed into the water below, disrupting the event and leaving onlookers surprised.

    Against this backdrop of headline-grabbing events, compiled by quiz editor Ben Fell, this weekly current affairs quiz challenges readers to test how closely they have paid attention to all global developments from the past week, not just the top trending stories. For those eager to continue testing their knowledge, opportunities to try the previous week’s quiz or explore past quizzes from the outlet’s archives are also available.

  • Love birds: twice-extinct parakeet gets lifeline from randy pair

    Love birds: twice-extinct parakeet gets lifeline from randy pair

    Deep in New Zealand’s conservation efforts, a species once written off twice is staging a remarkable comeback, all thanks to one extraordinarily prolific pair of feathered parents. The orange-fronted parakeet, known locally as kakariki karaka, has bounced between extinction declarations and rediscovery for decades, holding the grim title of one of the world’s rarest parakeet species. Today, a viral pair of captive breeders have become unlikely saviors, pushing the species’ total population to a more stable 450 individuals scattered across protected sanctuaries, predator-free offshore islands, and small remote wild habitats.

    Nacho and Trixie, the power couple at the heart of this success story, were paired for the first time in early 2024 at the Isaac Conservation and Wildlife Trust based in Christchurch. In less than a full breeding cycle, the pair has produced an astonishing 55 chicks – with 33 of those hatching in 2024 alone. Even more remarkably, as the official breeding season draws to a close, Trixie shows no signs of slowing down, with a seventh clutch of new chicks currently under her care.

    Leigh Percasky, wildlife manager at the Isaac Conservation and Wildlife Trust, has showered praise on the hardworking pair, particularly highlighting Trixie’s relentless dedication as a “super-mum”. “Ideally we’d prefer her to stop so she can have a rest, but she shows no signs of that,” Percasky explained in an interview, adding that researchers and conservation staff are still stunned by the pair’s endless energy. Nacho, for his part, has also earned recognition for his consistent support: he takes on the full responsibility of foraging for food to sustain Trixie and their growing brood, a demanding full-time role through every stage of chick rearing.

    Captive breeding programs like this one form the backbone of New Zealand’s efforts to save endemic species lost to invasive predators, a longstanding threat to the country’s unique native birdlife. Wayne Beggs, who leads the orange-fronted parakeet recovery program for New Zealand’s Department of Conservation, explained that pairs like Nacho and Trixie are the backbone of the species’ survival. Wild populations of the parakeet remain extremely vulnerable to stoats, rats, and other introduced predators that have decimated New Zealand’s native bird populations over the past two centuries. Without captive breeding programs to build a safe backup population and supply individuals to reestablish new wild colonies on predator-free islands, the species would have no safety net against extinction.

    “Nacho and Trixie have made a massive contribution to the survival of their species,” Percasky noted. After their current clutch of chicks reaches independence, conservation planners are planning to give the tireless love birds a long, well-earned break from breeding duties to recover before the next cycle. For a species that has already been declared extinct twice, this surge in population from one dedicated pair offers a rare hopeful story for global conservation efforts.

  • Dang Van Phuoc, AP combat photographer who lost an eye in the Vietnam War, dies at 91

    Dang Van Phuoc, AP combat photographer who lost an eye in the Vietnam War, dies at 91

    Dang Van Phuoc, the fearless former Associated Press photographer who built a legendary career covering the Vietnam War through devastating personal injury and immense hardship, has passed away at the age of 91. He died suddenly Saturday at his home in Southern California, confirmed his nephew Van Nguyen.

    Phuoc’s life was marked by struggle from its earliest days. Born in 1935 in a small Vietnamese village near Quang Ngai, south of Da Nang, he was orphaned by his mid-teens: his father was killed by Viet Cong insurgents when Phuoc was around 10 years old, and his mother died a few years later, leaving him homeless with no support system.

    In his young adulthood, Phuoc volunteered to carry equipment at a Saigon film studio where his aunt worked as a cook. It was in this space that he first encountered a camera, teaching himself the fundamentals of photography through self-guided practice and on-the-job observation.

    In 1965, Horst Faas, AP’s then–photo chief, hired Phuoc to replace a local photojournalist who had been killed while on assignment. It did not take long for Phuoc to earn a distinctive reputation among fellow journalists and coalition troops: he had an almost preternatural ability to reach the center of active combat, putting him in position to capture raw, unflinching images of the war that other photographers could not access. Faas would later dub Phuoc the news agency’s “secret weapon” for his unmatched prowess in the field. Phuoc regularly walked alongside the lead point man on combat patrols, a choice that produced extraordinary photography but exposed him to constant mortal danger.

    Over his 10-year tenure covering the war for AP, Phuoc sustained at least five separate combat injuries. Just five months after he was hired, a grenade explosion sprayed shrapnel into his chest and leg, but he returned to frontline reporting within a few months to continue covering the protracted conflict between North Vietnam’s Communist forces and the U.S.-backed South Vietnamese military. In 1968, he suffered a concussion when a rocket fragment struck his head while he documented intense street fighting in Saigon. That same year, he braved continuous sniper fire to carry a wounded U.S. soldier to safety, earning a formal commendation from the Ninth U.S. Army Infantry Division for his act of courage.

    The most devastating injury came in 1969, when a grenade explosion during a patrol with a U.S. Ranger battalion south of Da Nang cost Phuoc his right eye. Undeterred, he relearned how to frame and shoot photographs with a single eye and returned to his post within months. In a 2011 interview for AP’s institutional archives, Phuoc opened up about the unique challenges of working with one eye: he had to balance peering through his camera viewfinder while also staying alert for silent hand signals from the soldiers accompanying him on patrol.

    Huỳnh Công “Nick” Út, Phuoc’s colleague in AP’s Saigon bureau and the Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer behind the iconic image of a burned Vietnamese girl fleeing a napalm attack, remembered Phuoc as both a fearless professional and a devoted friend. “He was fearless and resourceful in the field,” Út said. “Behind the scenes, he was a giving man and loyal friend who treated me like a brother. When I heard he had passed, I cried, ‘My brother, he’s gone.’ Everyone loved him so much.”

    Though Phuoc was celebrated for his gripping combat photography, he often said the images that mattered most to him were those that captured the suffering of civilian civilians trapped in the crossfire of war. In the 2011 interview, he framed his work as a quiet act of service, comparing himself to “a small grain of sand” who used his camera to amplify unheard stories of civilian hardship to a global audience.

    When Saigon fell to North Vietnamese forces in 1975, Phuoc fled Vietnam with his family, carrying only the clothes on their backs and a single bottle of milk for his child. After being stranded in a Guam refugee camp, AP reporter Linda Deutsch—who was covering the camp at the time—intervened to help the family resettle, and they were flown to the U.S. to process at Camp Pendleton in Southern California.

    Phuoc briefly returned to Asia to work for AP’s Hong Kong bureau before leaving the news organization and settling permanently in Southern California with his family. He built a second career as a professional portrait photographer in Orange County, home to Little Saigon, the largest community of Vietnamese refugees outside Vietnam.

    In retirement, Phuoc remained deeply engaged in his craft and his community. He was a founding member of The Artistic Photography Association, where he trained generations of young emerging photographers. He also served as a civilian volunteer for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, and was named the county’s Volunteer of the Year in 1994.

    Kim Nguyen, Phuoc’s great-nephew, reflected on his legacy Tuesday, recalling the childhood portraits Phuoc took of him as an infant and a recent visit to a Vietnamese museum where he brought his own infant son to view Phuoc’s wartime work on public display.

  • A rare sanctuary in Congo looks after baby bonobos away from poaching threat

    A rare sanctuary in Congo looks after baby bonobos away from poaching threat

    Deep in the forested fringe of Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, sits a one-of-a-kind safe haven for the world’s most threatened great apes: Lola ya Bonobo, the only sanctuary on Earth dedicated exclusively to rescuing and raising orphaned bonobos. For 24 years, Micheline Nzonzi has served as a foster mother to these vulnerable young primates, and she currently cares for a sleepy 1-year-old orphan whose life depends on her care. With consistent maternal attention, bottle feeding, and regular social play with other rescued young bonobos, this tiny ape stands a strong chance of survival. “Without me, without us, these bonobos cannot survive,” Nzonzi explained. “They survive thanks to human affection.”

    Bonobos, one of humanity’s closest living genetic relatives sharing 98.7% of our DNA, have existed as a distinct species only since 1933, when American zoologist Harold Coolidge formalized the classification first proposed by German anatomist Ernst Schwarz four years earlier. Found only in the dense equatorial rainforests south of the Congo River, these apes are famously known for their female-led social structures, peaceful temperament, and high emotional intelligence, earning them the nickname “hippie apes” for their conflict-resolution and social behaviors. A 2025 study from Johns Hopkins University even suggests bonobos may possess a capacity for imagination, cementing their status as one of the most fascinating species on the planet.

    Yet today, the species faces imminent collapse. Population estimates have plummeted from 100,000 wild bonobos in the 1980s to roughly 20,000 today, landing the species on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s endangered list. The primary threat driving this decline is the unregulated commercial bushmeat trade. While bonobos are legally protected from hunting across the DRC, demand for wild game extends far beyond the Congo Basin, and the iconic apes fetch a premium price on black markets. Poachers often use captured baby bonobos as live bait: when adult bonobos approach to investigate the cries of the trapped infant, they are shot and killed for their meat. The surviving infants are then trafficked, sometimes kept as pets or sold into the exotic pet trade before being rescued by sanctuary workers.

    Cultural beliefs have compounded conservation challenges in the DRC, unlike neighboring Uganda where great apes are not hunted for consumption. “In Congo, they believe that you can become as strong as the primate you eat,” explained primatologist Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka, founder of Uganda-based conservation group Conservation Through Public Health. To curb hunting and protect bonobo habitat, Congolese authorities launched a novel proposal last year: “bonobo credits”, a market-based conservation model modeled after carbon credits that would reward local communities for preserving old-growth forest. As of early 2025, the program has not yet been implemented.

    In Kinshasa, the illegal primate meat trade has been pushed underground after a nationwide ban aimed at preventing the spread of zoonotic diseases like Ebola. Local vendors confirm that open sales of monkey and ape meat have ceased, though unregulated trade in other wild game from giant rodents to pythons continues openly in city markets. For sanctuary staff, the work of rescue and education remains an ongoing battle. “The bonobos are in danger. We are educating people to not kill the bonobos,” said Arsène Madimba, an educator at Lola ya Bonobo. “We can’t kill them, we can’t keep them as pets at home, we can’t eat them. Because of poaching, we see large-scale trafficking of orphaned bonobos across the entire country.”

    Today, Lola ya Bonobo, run by the Congolese conservation nonprofit Les Amis des Bonobos du Congo, houses dozens of adult bonobos, some of whom have lived at the sanctuary since it opened in 2002, plus 11 orphaned infants in its on-site nursery, with the most recent arrival arriving earlier this year. Each baby is paired with a long-term foster caregiver who will care for it for three to five years – matching the slow reproductive and developmental cycle that makes bonobos particularly vulnerable to population loss – before the young ape is integrated into a larger social group open to visitors. In rare, carefully planned cases, rehabilitated bonobos are eventually reintroduced to protected wild habitats, a process that requires years of preparation.

    For the sanctuary staff that works with the apes daily, the human-bonobo bond is tangible. Feeder Frank Lutete, who paddles across the sanctuary’s waterways to deliver fruit to the social groups, says the apes regularly show their gratitude. “Some bonobos thank me,” he explained, “tapping their chests in a gesture of gratitude.”

  • A year in, what’s on Pope Leo XIV’s to-do list? And what has he done so far?

    A year in, what’s on Pope Leo XIV’s to-do list? And what has he done so far?

    VATICAN CITY – When Pope Francis took the helm of the global Catholic Church, he launched his pontificate with an immediate flurry of institutional reforms, leadership reshuffles, and new governing structures that upended longstanding norms. In contrast, Pope Leo XIV has adopted a far more deliberate, methodical approach to his early tenure, prioritizing steady foundational work over rapid change as he charts a path for his papacy.

    As Leo settles into his role, he has already finalized several notable leadership and policy shifts, while a handful of high-stakes challenges loom on the horizon that will test his authority and vision for the church.

    ### Upcoming Key Appointments to Reshape Church Leadership
    A series of impending leadership vacancies in the United States and the Vatican will give Leo a unique opportunity to mold the church’s global hierarchy and central governance to align with his priorities.

    In Chicago, one of the most prominent U.S. archdioceses, Cardinal Blase Cupich turned 77 in March – two years past the standard mandatory retirement age for Catholic bishops, leaving the door open for Leo to appoint a new leader to his home country’s major see. By the end of December, Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez will reach the standard retirement age of 75, giving Leo the chance to name a new head of the largest archdiocese in the United States. He has already filled one top U.S. vacancy, appointing Archbishop Ronald Hicks to succeed retiring Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York. According to Michael Moreland, a professor of law and religion at Villanova University – Leo’s alma mater – that appointment did not carry a strong ideological lean in either direction, reflecting the pope’s overall cautious, non-partisan approach to personnel decisions.

    At the Vatican level, several senior leadership roles will soon open up. British Cardinal Arthur Roche, 76, leads the Vatican’s liturgy office, which oversaw Pope Francis’ highly controversial restrictions on the traditional Latin Mass. The selection of Roche’s eventual successor will be closely watched for clues about how Leo plans to address this deeply divisive issue within the church. American Cardinal Kevin Farrell, 78, who is well past retirement age, still heads the Vatican’s department for family and laity, and holds two other high-stakes posts: camerlengo, the official who oversaw the conclave that elected Leo, and chair of the Holy See’s most sensitive committees overseeing financial investments and the Vatican City State’s highest court of appeal. Canadian Cardinal Michael Czerny, head of the Vatican’s office for migrants, environment and development, will turn 80 in July. Once he turns 80, he will be ineligible to vote in future papal conclaves, dropping the total number of voting-age cardinals to 117 – below the traditional 120-person cap. That shift paves the way for Leo to announce his first slate of new cardinals within the next year, expanding the college of electors who will one day choose his successor.

    ### Policy Shifts: Rolling Back and Revising Francis-Era Initiatives
    From the start of his pontificate, Francis encouraged young Catholics to disrupt diocesan institutions and “make a mess” to drive renewal. Leo has moved quickly to unwind and reorganize a number of these initiatives, addressing what he and other leaders see as unworkable structures born of Francis’ agenda.

    In April, the Vatican canceled the World Day of Children, a signature Francis initiative that had drawn ongoing questions about its core mission and purpose. The cancellation followed Leo’s formal disbanding of the ad hoc pontifical commission Francis created to organize the event in 2024. In December, Leo dissolved a Holy See fundraising commission that had been established under questionable circumstances in 2025, during the final weeks of Francis’ life when he was hospitalized. The commission was composed entirely of Italian members with no professional fundraising experience, and its president was a senior official from the Secretariat of State – the same Vatican department Francis stripped of asset management authority after it lost tens of millions of euros in the infamous London property investment scandal. After disbanding the flawed commission, Leo launched a new, reorganized committee to develop transparent, effective fundraising strategies and structures.

    Ward Fitzgerald, president of The Papal Foundation, a U.S.-based group of wealthy donors that funds papal charity projects across the developing world, noted: “The Holy Father was clearly paying attention. He realized that it was not going to be highly functional.”

    Beyond organizational overhauls, Leo has also revised Francis-era financial policy: he revoked a 2022 law that concentrated all Holy See financial power in the Vatican bank, issuing a new regulation that allows the Holy See’s investment committee to work with external banks when it delivers better financial outcomes. Leo has also broken new ground on the long-running clergy sexual abuse crisis, meeting with activist survivor groups who advocate for institutional reform. Survivors say the pope promised ongoing dialogue as they push the Vatican to adopt a binding global zero-tolerance policy for abuse. While Francis met regularly with individual abuse survivors, he largely kept organized activist advocacy groups at arm’s length.

    ### Private Audiences Reveal Openness to Diverse Perspectives
    Pope Leo’s closed-door private meetings with a range of stakeholders have offered insight into his priorities, showing he is willing to engage with groups across ideological divides even as he keeps his own final positions closely held. In mid-March, he met with Gareth Gore, author of a controversial book alleging widespread abuses within the influential conservative Catholic movement Opus Dei. In February, he held a private audience with a delegation from Courage International, a church-affiliated organization that supports people with same-sex attraction seeking to live in accordance with Catholic teaching on chastity. While critics have labeled the group anti-gay and accused it of promoting conversion therapy, the organization denies those claims. Earlier in March, he met with the authors of a new book on traditional Latin Mass Catholics in the U.S., who presented findings from their large-scale survey of the community. Leo has made clear he is well aware of the deep divisions sparked by Francis’ Latin Mass restrictions, and has expressed a desire to hear directly from traditionalist Catholics to better understand their perspectives as he works to heal rifts over the traditional liturgy.

    ### Two Major Looming Challenges
    The ongoing dispute over the traditional Latin Mass is on track to reach a critical turning point on July 1, when four new traditionalist bishops are set to be consecrated without Pope Leo’s formal approval. The bishops belong to the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), a breakaway traditionalist group, and an unsanctioned consecration would qualify as a schismatic act that automatically triggers excommunication for all involved. While the SSPX remains a fringe group within the broader traditionalist Catholic movement, traditionalists in full communion with the Holy See are closely watching how Leo responds to the provocation. On the opposite end of the ideological spectrum, the Vatican faces the threat of a major institutional split with the German Catholic Church over its years-long Synodal Path reform process. German leaders have proposed creating a permanent joint governing body made up of both bishops and lay Catholics to make collective decisions – a direct break from traditional Catholic ecclesiology, which reserves full governing authority for bishops. The Vatican has already publicly stated its opposition to this shared governance structure, and has also pushed back against German proposals to formalize public blessings for same-sex couples, a practice Francis only allowed on an informal, spontaneous basis. A direct confrontation is likely once the full German reform proposals are submitted to Rome for final approval.

    ### The Upcoming Landmark Encyclical on Artificial Intelligence
    While many outside observers frame the most pressing issue for Leo as his relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump and the prospect of a papal visit to the U.S. (currently, no visit is scheduled for 2025), the pope himself has signaled his top near-term priority is his first encyclical. The document, which is expected to be released in the coming weeks, focuses on artificial intelligence and broader questions of global peace and justice. Leo has already drawn a parallel between the AI revolution and the industrial upheaval of the late 19th century, which his namesake Pope Leo XIII addressed in his landmark 1891 encyclical *Rerum Novarum* on workers’ rights. “Like his namesake Leo XIII with the Industrial Revolution, Leo clearly sees the church as having something important to offer in an era of what may turn out to be epochal technological change,” said Dan Rober, associate professor of Catholic studies at Sacred Heart University.

    This reporting on religion was supported by a collaboration between the Associated Press and The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The Associated Press holds sole editorial responsibility for this content.

  • The WW2 spy killed in mystery crash days after the war ended

    The WW2 spy killed in mystery crash days after the war ended

    Eighty years after the end of World War II, one of the conflict’s most decorated joint heroes of Wales and France remains at the center of an unresolved, little-known mystery: how exactly did Jacques Vaillant de Guélis meet his death just days after the guns fell silent in Europe?

    Born in 1907 in central Cardiff to French parents who built their fortune exporting Welsh coal to Brittany, Vaillant de Guélis was a polyglot Oxford graduate with a thriving career in advertising when war broke out across Europe in 1939. Like many of his generation, he walked away from his comfortable civilian life to enlist in the British Army, and his unique background – a French-born upbringing paired with deep roots in the UK – quickly caught the eye of Britain’s most elite covert organization: the Special Operations Executive (SOE), the shadowy unit tasked with sabotage and resistance building behind enemy lines.

    Vaillant de Guélis’s military career was defined by near-miraculous escapes and relentless courage from its earliest days. In 1939, he served as a liaison officer with the British Expeditionary Force, and after Germany’s invasion of France forced the Dunkirk evacuation, he immediately volunteered to return to occupied France in June 1940 to help evacuate thousands of stranded Allied soldiers. When he completed that mission, it was too late to escape across the English Channel, so he led a small group south through Marseille, crossed the Pyrenees into neutral Spain, where he was interned for months before British diplomatic efforts secured his release and a return to Scotland.

    That bold exploit put him on the SOE’s radar in April 1941. Recruited by Major Lewis Gielgud (brother of legendary actor Sir John Gielgud) and even reportedly interviewed for the role personally by Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Vaillant de Guélis began his career as a covert operative. He completed four separate missions behind German lines over the course of the war. His first deployment, in August 1941, saw him parachute into Vichy France, where he supplied resistance fighters with forged documents, radio equipment, and critical military intelligence to coordinate attacks against Nazi forces. After successfully completing that mission, he extracted via a rough, makeshift airstrip picked up by the Royal Air Force.

    By 1943, Vaillant de Guélis had joined General Charles de Gaulle’s Free French Army in North Africa, fighting through the North African campaign before joining the assault to liberate Corsica, where he saw brutal hand-to-hand combat to oust German forces from the island. After D-Day in 1944, he was once again dropped behind enemy lines, tasked with coordinating resistance cells to disrupt German retreats from the Allied advance. Author and World War II historian Greg Lewis, who has researched Vaillant de Guélis extensively, notes that deploying an operative of his seniority and knowledge of SOE networks directly into the field was extremely risky – but Vaillant de Guélis’s proven skill and local familiarity made him irreplaceable.

    It was his final mission, however, that would end his life just days after the war in Europe officially ended. On May 16, 1945, just eight days after VE Day, Vaillant de Guélis was sent to the newly liberated Flossenbürg concentration camp near the modern-day Czech-German border to gather intelligence on captured SOE operatives who had been imprisoned and killed there. While he was standing just yards from the camp gates, he was struck by a car driven by a German soldier who had worked as a camp guard just days earlier. He was rushed to emergency care in Paris, then transferred to a military hospital in Staffordshire, England, where he died from his injuries three months later on August 7, 1945.

    To this day, the circumstances of the crash remain unclear, fueling decades of speculation. Many have suggested that Vaillant de Guélis may have been deliberately targeted by a former Nazi camp guard who wanted to prevent evidence of war crimes from reaching Allied authorities – evidence that would later be used to prosecute Nazi leaders at the Nuremberg Trials. Lewis, who first became interested in Vaillant de Guélis while researching Cathays Cemetery in Cardiff, where the hero’s ashes are buried in a family plot, says there is no concrete evidence to support claims of an organized assassination. But the speed with which the case was closed – it was shut down almost immediately after it was opened – and the lack of surviving documentation has left critical questions unanswered. Lewis acknowledges that while chaos across post-war Germany makes an organized plot unlikely, a rogue former Nazi acting alone to silence Vaillant de Guélis cannot be ruled out.

    Vaillant de Guélis was posthumously honored for his extraordinary bravery by both his home nations: he received the Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) from the United Kingdom and the Croix de Guerre with Palm, France’s highest award for gallantry, from the French government. Today, a blue plaque marks the Cardiff building where he was born, honoring his service. For Lewis, the tragedy of Vaillant de Guélis’s story extends beyond his early death: unlike many SOE operatives who survived the war and left firsthand recollections of their service, all that remains of his legacy is an official military file, with no personal memoir or firsthand account of his extraordinary exploits.

  • Elaborately decorated skeletons in Catholic churches across Bavaria take some visitors by surprise

    Elaborately decorated skeletons in Catholic churches across Bavaria take some visitors by surprise

    In the ornate Baroque Catholic monastery church of Banz, nestled near the Bavarian town of Bad Staffelstein in southern Germany, a striking, centuries-old exhibit continues to draw curiosity and quiet unease from visitors: four fully intact skeletons, draped in luxurious silk and brocade, embellished with gemstones, delicate filigree gold, silver and fine lace. These remains, known by the names Vincenzius, Valerius, Benedictus and Felix Benedictus, count among Europe’s little-known collection of catacomb saints, a set of religious relics with a unique history stretching back hundreds of years.

    These holy skeletons were transported from Roman catacombs to the Benedictine monastery between the late 17th century and mid-18th century, a period when demand for early Christian martyr relics boomed across Catholic Europe. For many first-time visitors, the display is unsettling. “It’s actually a little creepy,” church custodian Anita Gottschlich shared quietly, standing before one skeleton whose hollow eye sockets seem to lock gaze with onlookers. Even so, Gottschlich notes the relics hold enduring cross-generational fascination: older guests who first saw the skeletons as children still make a point to seek out what locals call the Holy Bodies, their memories of the display undimmed after decades.

    While catacomb saints may be unknown to many modern travelers, their decorated remains can still be found in dozens of Baroque churches and monasteries across Bavaria, as well as in neighboring Austria, Switzerland, Czechia and their native Italy. Most are permanently displayed in glass, coffin-style cabinets, keeping the long-dead relics accessible to visitors centuries after they arrived.

    The story of catacomb saints begins in 16th century Rome, when excavators uncovered thousands of unmarked graves in the city’s ancient underground catacombs. Church leadership quickly classified all uncovered remains as early Christian martyrs, making them desirable relics for churches and monastic communities across the continent. “At the time, the church simply designated them all as saints,” explained Walter Ries, the Catholic priest who serves the Banz church congregation today. “And of course, in many countries, including Germany, people wanted to have such holy remains, such relics, simply because this enhanced the status of their own church or monastery and perhaps turned it into a place of pilgrimage.”

    Banz Monastery itself has changed dramatically since the four skeletons arrived. Founded by Benedictine monks in 1070, the community flourished for more than 700 years before it was dissolved in 1803 during widespread German secularization. Today, only the church remains an active place of worship, housing a small congregation of just 211 people, while the former monastery buildings are occupied by a political foundation. “A great deal has changed over the course of the centuries,” Ries said. “Back then, these relics were very important, but today they really aren’t anymore.”

    The surge in devotion to catacomb saints in the 17th and 18th centuries emerged from a period of profound crisis in central Europe. Just decades before the Banz skeletons arrived, the region was still recovering from the Thirty Years’ War, a brutal conflict that began as a religious struggle between Catholics and Protestants and killed an estimated 4 to 8 million people through combat, famine and widespread disease. “That was a terrible time,” Ries said. “And so people tried to open the gates of heaven through the Baroque. That’s why everything was designed so beautifully. It was an escape from the present, which was often so terrible. That’s also why these eerie skeletons were so beautifully draped and depicted as lifelike as possible.”

    Abbots of Banz Monastery sent official delegations to Rome twice, first in 1680 and again in 1645, to secure the four relics. After their arrival, nuns from the nearby town of Bamberg spent hours carefully adorning the skeletons in the lavish textiles and finery they still wear today.

    To this day, the Holy Bodies are only put on full public display for special religious occasions including All Saints’ Day. For most of the year, wooden panels painted with portraits of the saints cover the glass display cases, turning a rare viewing into a meaningful experience for faithful visitors. According to Günter Dippold, a historian who has spent years researching both catacomb saints and the history of Banz Monastery, the elaborate decoration of the skeletons serves a specific theological purpose that many modern visitors miss.

    The adornment “is not meant to show the dead body of a saint, but rather to show his glorified body,” Dippold explained. “It is therefore intended to show the faithful who view it what we will look like after the resurrection, after being raised from the dead, when we no longer have our earthly bodies but rather glorified ones.”

    —
    This report is part of Associated Press religion coverage, supported through a collaboration with The Conversation US via funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP holds sole responsibility for all content.

  • The year in review: Influential people who have died in 2026

    The year in review: Influential people who have died in 2026

    Across the first four months of 2025, the world lost a remarkable cohort of trailblazers, creators, leaders, and icons whose legacies have shaped fields from entertainment and sports to science, politics, and human rights. These individuals left indelible marks on global culture, policy, and progress, and their passing has been marked by mourning from communities, leaders, and fans across the globe.

    The roll call of influential figures begins in January, where the world said goodbye to icons across every sector. Diane Crump, 77, broke barriers as the first woman to compete as a professional jockey in a sanctioned horse race in 1969, and a year later made history again as the first female rider to enter the Kentucky Derby; she passed away on January 1. South Korean cinema legend Ahn Sung-ki, 74, who earned the beloved nickname “The Nation’s Actor” for his 60-year prolific career and warm public image, died January 5. The same day brought the death of Aldrich Ames, 84, the CIA turncoat whose decades-long betrayal of Western intelligence assets to the Soviet Union and Russia stands as one of the most damaging security breaches in U.S. history, who died in prison.

    January also saw the passing of award-winning Hungarian filmmaker Béla Tarr, 70, celebrated for his iconic works *Sátántangó* and *The Turin Horse*; NHL Hall of Fame goaltender Glenn Hall, 94, whose 502-consecutive-start ironman streak remains an unbroken league record; Grateful Dead co-founder Bob Weir, 78, who shaped the 1960s San Francisco counterculture sound; Grammy-nominated Fugees collaborator John Forté, 50; “Dilbert” creator Scott Adams, 68, whose iconic office satire entertained millions for decades before syndication dropped him in 2023 over controversial racist remarks; civil rights pioneer Claudette Colvin, 86, who was arrested at 15 for refusing to surrender her segregated bus seat nine months before Rosa Parks’ famous protest, laying critical groundwork for the Montgomery bus boycott; iconic Italian fashion designer Valentino Garavani, 93, famous for his glamorous gowns and signature “Valentino red”; former Czechoslovakian Olympic weightlifting gold medalist Ota Zaremba, 68; William Foege, 89, the public health leader who spearheaded the global campaign that eradicated smallpox, one of humanity’s greatest public health victories; beloved Canadian comedic actor Catherine O’Hara, 71, famous for *Home Alone* and her Emmy-winning role as Moira Rose in *Schitt’s Creek*; and “Sanford and Son” star Demond Wilson, 79, who later became an ordained minister.

    February brought more losses of influential figures. Award-winning poet, educator and textbook author X.J. Kennedy, 96, who taught millions of American students through works like *The Bedford Reader*, died February 1. Three Dog Night founding member Chuck Negron, 83, who sang lead on the band’s iconic hits including “Joy to the World” and “One,” died February 2. Legendary Detroit Tigers pitcher Mickey Lolich, 85, who notched three complete-game victories during the 1968 World Series, a feat no MLB pitcher has repeated since, died February 4. *Dawson’s Creek* star James Van Der Beek, 48, who became a 2000s heartthrob and later embraced self-parody, died February 11 after a battle with colorectal cancer. Iconic Oscar-winning actor Robert Duvall, 95, famous for his roles in *The Godfather* and *Tender Mercies*, died February 15.

    Other February losses include groundbreaking documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman, 96, whose unflinching works chronicled American social institutions; civil rights leader and two-time U.S. presidential candidate Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, 84, who carried forward the work of Martin Luther King Jr. after his assassination; *Grey’s Anatomy* and *Euphoria* actor Eric Dane, 53, who died from ALS less than a year after announcing his diagnosis and became a leading advocate for the disease; Hall of Fame Pittsburgh Pirates second baseman Bill Mazeroski, 89, famous for his historic walk-off home run that won the 1960 World Series; influential salsa music architect and activist Willie Colón, 75; *Revenge of the Nerds* star Robert Carradine, 71; Broadway pioneer Sondra Lee, 97, who originated the role of Tiger Lily in the original *Peter Pan* and starred in the first production of *Hello, Dolly!*; legendary rock ‘n’ roll singer-songwriter Neil Sedaka, 86, who enjoyed two separate eras of chart-topping success across the 1950s and 1970s; and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 86, Iran’s long-serving supreme leader who consolidated theocratic power and led Iran through decades of regional and global conflict, who was killed in joint U.S.-Israeli military strikes on February 28.

    March began with the passing of Kermit Gosnell, 85, the abortion provider convicted of murder for killing three infants born alive at his Philadelphia clinic, on March 1. Legendary college football coach Lou Holtz, 89, who led Notre Dame to the 1988 national championship and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame, died March 4. Civil rights leader Bernard LaFayette, 85, who laid critical on-the-ground groundwork for the 1965 Selma voting rights campaign that led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act, died March 5. 1960s anti-war rock icon “Country” Joe McDonald, 84, whose *I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-To-Die Rag* became a defining Vietnam War protest anthem and a Woodstock highlight, died March 8. Alexander Butterfield, 99, the White House aide whose accidental revelation of Richard Nixon’s Oval Office taping system accelerated the president’s resignation during the Watergate scandal, died March 9.

    March also saw the death of Nicholas Haysom, 73, the white South African anti-apartheid activist tapped by Nelson Mandela to help draft post-apartheid South Africa’s constitution that enshrined equal rights for all races; Indonesian billionaire Michael Bambang Hartono, 86, who built the Djarum tobacco conglomerate into one of the nation’s largest business empires; iconic martial artist and action star Chuck Norris, 86, famous for *Walker, Texas Ranger* and his decades-long status as a global pop culture icon; Italian populist politics pioneer Umberto Bossi, 84, founder of the Northern League and one of the nation’s most polarizing modern political figures; former FBI Director and special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, 81, who restructured the FBI to counter terrorism after the 9/11 attacks and led the investigation into 2016 Russian election interference; *Buffy the Vampire Slayer* actor Nicholas Brendon, 54, who died of natural causes in his sleep; former French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, 88, who introduced France’s 35-hour work week during his tenure; soft-rock legend Darrell “Dash” Crofts, 87, half of the Seals and Crofts duo behind hits including “Summer Breeze”; character actor James Tolkan, 94, famous for his roles in *Top Gun* and *Back to the Future*; and Tony-nominated actor Mary Beth Hurt, 79.

    April closed out the first four months of the year with the passing of a new group of icons. Jim Whittaker, 97, who became the first American to summit Mount Everest in 1963, died April 7. Sid Krofft, 96, the Canadian-born entertainment pioneer who co-created cult classic children’s shows like *H.R. Pufnstuf* with his brother Marty, died April 10. Lionel Rosenblatt, 82, the U.S. Foreign Service officer who orchestrated an unauthorized evacuation of hundreds of Vietnamese civilians before the 1975 fall of Saigon, saving countless lives, died April 11.

    Two icons died on April 12: legendary 92-year-old Bollywood singer Asha Bhosle, whose voice defined Indian cinema for nearly 80 years across an unprecedented 12,000 recorded tracks, earning national mourning and praise from Prime Minister Narendra Modi for her irreplaceable contribution to Indian culture; and wheelchair racing pioneer Bob Hall, 74, a polio survivor who won the Boston Marathon twice and pioneered modern racing wheelchair design, earning the title “father of wheelchair racing.”

    April’s other losses include iconic country music songwriter Don Schlitz, 73, who wrote hits including “The Gambler” and “Forever and Ever, Amen”; Brazilian Basketball Hall of Famer Oscar Schmidt, 68, known to fans as “Holy Hand” for his unrivaled shooting; beloved French actor Nathalie Baye, 77; George R. Ariyoshi, 100, former Hawaii governor and the first Asian American to serve as a U.S. state governor; Traffic co-founder and Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Dave Mason, 79, who wrote the classic hit “Feelin’ Alright”; Alan Osmond, 76, eldest member of the hit family group The Osmonds; Nedra Talley Ross, 80, last surviving member of the 1960s pop group the Ronettes behind enduring hits like “Be My Baby”; iconic outlaw country singer-songwriter David Allan Coe, 86, who wrote the working-class anthem “Take This Job and Shove It”; and pioneering geneticist J. Craig Venter, 79, who led the team that produced the first draft sequence of the human genome and later became the first person to publish his own fully sequenced genome, opening new frontiers in understanding genetic inheritance and disease vulnerability.

  • Critically endangered antelopes return to Kenya from Czech zoo

    Critically endangered antelopes return to Kenya from Czech zoo

    NAIROBI, Kenya — In a landmark milestone for global endangered species conservation, four critically endangered mountain bongos have touched down in Kenya, marking the next step in their journey back to the wild forests that have been their species’ native home for centuries. The rare antelopes, recognizable by their striking striped coats, have spent decades under protective care at Dvur Kralove Zoo in the Czech Republic, a legacy of conservation emergency measures taken in the 1980s.

    Today, mountain bongos are classified as critically endangered by global conservation bodies, with fewer than 100 individuals remaining in their natural wild habitat across Kenya, according to official Kenyan government data. The species’ sharp population decline stems from two major threats: rampant poaching and devastating outbreaks of infectious disease. The 1980s rinderpest outbreak that swept through regional wildlife populations killed thousands of bongos, pushing the species to the brink of extinction. In a bid to save the genetically distinct lineages that survived the outbreak, conservationists relocated dozens of bongos to European zoos, where they could be protected and bred safely.

    The four newly arrived bongos traveled to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Kenya’s main air hub, aboard a KLM cargo flight, secured in climate-controlled wooden crates designed to minimize stress during the long journey. They were officially welcomed at the airport by Kenya’s Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi and Cabinet Secretary for Tourism and Wildlife Rebecca Miano, who framed the arrival as a symbolic and practical “homecoming of the majestic bongos.”

    This relocation marks the third repatriation of zoo-bred mountain bongos to Kenya in recent years, following the last successful transfer in February 2025. Before the antelopes can be released into their natural wild habitat, they will undergo a mandatory period of quarantine and gradual acclimatization to prepare them for life outside captivity. After this adjustment period, they will be transferred to the Mount Kenya Wildlife Conservancy, a protected facility that already hosts 102 bongos as part of the species’ national recovery program.

    The conservancy, which manages Kenya’s National Mountain Bongo Recovery and Action Plan in close partnership with the national government, developed the repatriation project with a clear core goal: expanding the species’ existing gene pool through cross-breeding between newly arrived individuals and the conservancy’s current population. Conservation experts emphasize that increasing genetic diversity is the single most critical step to building long-term resilience for the small, vulnerable bongo population.

    Kenyan-born conservation filmmakers and explorers Jahawi and Elke Bertolli, who have long documented mountain bongo conservation efforts, shared their insight with the Associated Press on the significance of this arrival. Beyond boosting genetic variation, they noted, the bongo species plays an underrecognized key role in maintaining the health of Kenya’s montane forests — ecosystems that form the backbone of the country’s freshwater supply, serving millions of people across the region.

    Nicol Adamcova, Ambassador of the Czech Republic to Kenya, emphasized that the successful repatriation is a product of decades of collaborative partnership between the two nations. “This relocation reflects our shared long-standing commitment to protecting global biodiversity and reversing the decline of species on the brink of extinction,” she said.

    Prime Cabinet Secretary Mudavadi echoed that sentiment, highlighting what cross-sector, cross-border collaboration can achieve when aligned around a common conservation goal. “This milestone is proof of what we can deliver when policy, science, and international partnership come together for conservation,” he said. “I commend every stakeholder involved in this work, and I can assure you that the Kenyan government remains unwavering in its support to strengthen conservation frameworks and ensure our nation’s rich biodiversity continues to thrive for generations.”

    Tourism Minister Miano added that the addition of genetically diverse individuals to the bongo breeding program is a transformative step forward. “Strengthening the species’ genetic resilience through increased diversity puts us on a stronger path to pulling this iconic animal back from the edge of extinction,” she said.

  • In pics: blooming water lilies in China

    In pics: blooming water lilies in China

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