Blogs
on September 13, 2025
There, from the same spot where he first appeared to the world as pope on the night of his election in 2013, he spoke of 'the darkness and the gloom in which, all too often, our world finds itself enveloped', and prayed to God for peace.
Hassoo and fellow Yazidi activists compiled a report website that urged the United States and other nations to probe the role social media platforms including Facebook and YouTube played in crimes against their minority Yazidi community.
"We may feel helpless and discouraged before the power of evil, the conflicts that tear relationships apart, the attitudes of calculation and indifference that seem to prevail in society, the cancer of corruption, the spread of injustice, the icy winds of war," he said.
The star itself is beautiful to look at, but a highlight of the new image is the background and the array of galaxies and stars that appear there. It's a testament to the telescope's sensitivity that it can see so much in just this test image.
It's been a long road, and the image marks a triumphant milestone. "More than 20 years ago, the Webb team set out to build the most powerful telescope that anyone has ever put in space and came up with an audacious optical design to meet demanding science goals," said Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. "Today we can say that design is going to deliver."
Peter's Square and then delivering his twice-annual "Urbi et Orbi" (to the city and the world) blessing and message from the central external balcony of St. Peter's Basilica. (Reporting by Philip Pullella; Editing by Christina Fincher)
This weekend mark the first Easter without the late Queen after she died aged 96 on September 8 last year 2022. It is also the second anniversary of the death of her devoted husband Prince Philip on Sunday.
The Webb team will take the telescope through more alignment steps over the next six weeks. The observatory will then go through a two-month process of preparing its science instruments before it's ready to tackle its mission in earnest. If all continues to go well, we could see Webb's first full-resolution imagery this summer.
Facebook has come under fire for failing to curb incitement in conflicts from Ethiopia to Myanmar, where United Nations investigators say it played a key role in spreading hate speech that fuelled violence against Rohingya Muslims.
"On this day, Lord, we entrust to you the city of Jerusalem, the first witness of your resurrection. I express deep worry over the attacks of these last few days that threaten the hoped-for climate of trust and reciprocal respect, needed to resume the dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians, so that peace may reign in the Holy City and in the entire region," he said.
There, from the same spot where he first appeared to the world as pope on the night of his election in 2013, he spoke of "the darkness and the gloom in which, all too often, our world finds itself enveloped", and prayed to God for peace.
March 11 marked the completion of an alignment stage called "fine phasing." "At this key stage in the commissioning of Webb's Optical Telescope Element, every optical parameter that has been checked and tested is performing at, or above, expectations," NASA said.
"While the policies of a global corporation should be expected to change slightly from country to country, based on ongoing human rights impact assessments, there also needs to be a degree of transparency, consistency and accountability," he said.
'It was churches and monasteries compelled by the living Christ who spent years before 1998 secretly, at huge risk, building the bridges that opened the way for the first ceasefires and considerations of peace,' Mr Welby said.
Facebook owner Meta Platforms will temporarily allow Facebook and Instagram users in some countries to call for violence against Russians and Russian soldiers in the context of the Ukraine invasion, Reuters reported last week.
Reading his homily in a strong and confident voice, Francis said that even when people felt the wellspring of hope had dried up, it was important not to be frozen in a sense of defeat but to seek an "interior resurrection" with God's help.
"The disparity in measures in comparison to Palestine, Syria or any other non-Western conflict reinforces that inequality and discrimination of tech platforms is a feature, not a bug," said Fatafta, policy manager for the Middle East and North Africa.
Webb is a complex beast. It uses 18 hexagonal mirror segments that had to be folded up for launch and then unfolded and aligned in space. We've been following the process and seeing increasingly sharper and more focused views of the telescope's target star leading up to this week's image release.
NASA's Thomas Zurbuchen delivered a key message about the James Webb Space Telescope on Wednesday: It's going to deliver on its promise to see the universe in unprecedented depth and detail. Webb is already sending back proof of its prowess with a new alignment evaluation image that shows a gleaming star against a background of galaxies.<img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a2/Tim_McGraw_-_Standing_Room_Only.png"; style="max-width:400px;float:left;padding:10px 10px 10px 0px;border:0px;" alt="" />