China expresses condolences over death of Pope Francis
People bow to pay their respects in front of a portrait of Pope Francis displayed inside Myeongdong Cathedral in Seoul on April 22, 2025, a day after his death. (Pool via (REUTERS)
BEIJING--China's foreign ministry on Tuesday expressed condolences over the death of Pope Francis, but said it had no information to share on who might attend the funeral.
China and the Vatican have in recent years maintained constructive contact and carried out beneficial exchanges, ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun told a regular news briefing in Beijing.
China is willing to work with the Vatican to continue to improve bilateral relations, Guo said.
The two countries in October last year extended for four years a landmark 2018 agreement on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China.
The renewal suggested improving ties between Beijing and the Vatican despite tension over Taiwan, the democratically-governed island China claims as its own and with which the Vatican has formal diplomatic relations.
On Tuesday, Guo said the agreement for appointing bishops has been 'implemented smoothly'.
Conservative Catholics have criticized the deal, which has never been publicly released, as handing too much control to China's ruling communist party. The Vatican says the accord resolved a decades-long split between an underground church loyal to the Vatican and the state-supervised Catholic Patriotic Association.
Guo said he had no information to provide when asked about whether China would send any representatives to attend Francis' funeral, which is scheduled for Saturday.
The Vatican estimates about 5 million of China's 1.4 billion people are Catholic.
Taiwan has yet to announce who it is sending to the funeral, though Taiwanese presidents have attended some major Vatican events in recent years, including Francis' inaugural mass in 2013.
Speaking in Taipei earlier on Tuesday, Taiwan Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hsiao Kuang-wei said the ministry will 'continue to push for senior government' participation at the funeral given the 'profound' friendship between Taiwan and the Vatican.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yomiuri Shimbun
2 hours ago
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Trump Reports More Than $600 Million in Income from Crypto, Golf, Licensing Fees
Reuters U.S. President Donald Trump waves next to first lady Melania Trump following the military parade to commemorate the U.S. Army's 250th Birthday, on the day of U.S. President Donald Trump 79th birthday, in Washington on Saturday. WASHINGTON (Reuters) — U.S. President Donald Trump reported more than $600 million in income from crypto, golf clubs, licensing and other ventures in a public financial disclosure report released on Friday that provided a glimpse of the vast business holdings of America's billionaire president. The annual financial disclosure form, which appeared to cover the 2024 calendar year, shows the president's push into crypto added substantially to his wealth but he also reported large fees from developments and revenues from his other businesses. Overall, the president reported assets worth at least $1.6 billion, a Reuters calculation shows. While Trump has said he has put his businesses into a trust managed by his children, the disclosures show how income from those sources still ultimately accrue to the president – something that has opened him to accusations of conflicts of interest. Some of his businesses in areas such as crypto, for example, benefit from U.S. policy shifts under him and have become a source of criticism. 'President Trump, Vice President Vance, and senior White House staff have completed required ethics briefings and financial reporting obligations,' White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in an emailed statement to Reuters. 'The Trump Administration is committed to transparency and accessibility for the American people.' The financial disclosure was signed on June 13 and did not state the time period it covered. The details of the cryptocurrency listings, as well as other information in the disclosure, suggest it was through the end of December 2024, which would exclude most of the money raised by the family's cryptocurrency ventures. Given the speed at which the Trump family has made deals during his ascent to the presidency, the filing is already a time capsule of sorts, capturing a period when the family was just starting to get into crypto but was largely still in the world of real estate deals and golf clubs. A meme coin released earlier this year by the president – $TRUMP – alone has earned an estimated $320 million in fees, although it's not publicly known how that amount has been divided between a Trump-controlled entity and its partners. In addition to the meme coin fees, the Trump family has raked in more than $400 million from World Liberty Financial, a decentralized finance company. The Trump family is involved, also, with a bitcoin mining operation and digital asset exchange-traded funds. In the disclosures, Trump reported $57.35 million from token sales at World Liberty. He also reported holding 15.75 billion governance tokens in the venture. The wealth of the Republican businessman-turned-politician ranges from crypto to real estate, and a large part on paper is tied up in his stake in Trump Media & Technology Group DJT.O, owner of social media platform Truth Social. Besides assets and revenues from his business ventures, the president reported at least $12 million in income, including through interest and dividends, from passive investments totaling at least $211 million, a Reuters calculation shows. His biggest investments were in alternative fund manager Blue Owl Capital Corp OBDC.N and in government bond funds managed by Charles Schwab SCHW.N and Invesco IVZ.N. The disclosure often only gave ranges for the value of his assets and income; Reuters used the lower amount listed, meaning the total value of his assets and income was almost certainly higher. The disclosure showed income from various assets including Trump's properties in Florida. Trump's three golf-focused resorts in the state – Jupiter, Doral and West Palm Beach – plus his nearby private members' club at Mar-a-Lago generated at least $217.7 million in income, according to the filing. Trump National Doral, the expansive Miami-area golf hub known for its Blue Monster course, was the family's single largest income source at $110.4 million. The income figures provided are essentially revenues, not net profits after subtracting costs. The disclosure underlined the global nature of the Trump family business, listing income of $5 million in license fees from a development in Vietnam, $10 million in development fees from a project in India and almost $16 million in licensing fees for a Dubai project. Trump collected royalty money, also, from a variety of deals – $1.3 million from the Greenwood Bible (its website describes it as 'the only Bible officially endorsed by Lee Greenwood and President Trump'); $2.8 million from Trump Watches, and $2.5 million from Trump Sneakers and Fragrances. Trump listed $1.16 million in income from his NFTs – digital trading cards in his likeness – while First Lady Melania Trump earned around $216,700 from license fees on her own NFT collection.
Yomiuri Shimbun
5 hours ago
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Zelenskiy says Ukraine Halts Russian Troop Advance in Sumy Region
Reuters Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaks during a joint press conference amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv on June 12. KYIV, June 14 (Reuters) — Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday that Ukrainian forces had recaptured Andriivka village in northeastern Sumy region as part of a drive to expel Russian forces from the area. Zelenskiy has in the past week focused on what he describes as a drive to push out Russian forces from the Sumy region, with border areas gripped by heavy fighting. He says Russia has amassed 53,000 troops in the area. 'Based on recent developments, our special thanks go to the soldiers of the 225th Separate Assault Regiment — for offensive operations in the Sumy region and the liberation, in particular, of Andriivka,' Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address. Zelenskiy also noted 'successful actions' near Pokrovsk, for months a focus of Russian attacks in their slow advance on the eastern front, and 'strong results' near Kupiansk, an area in northeastern Ukraine that has come under heavy Russian pressure. In remarks released for publication earlier on Saturday, Zelenskiy said Ukrainian forces had stopped Russian troops advancing in Sumy region and were battling to regain control along the border. 'We are levelling the position. The fighting there is along the border. You should understand that the enemy has been stopped there. And the maximum depth at which the fighting takes place is 7 kilometers from the border,' Zelenskiy said. Reuters could not verify the battlefield reports. Russia's troops have been focusing their assaults in the eastern Donetsk region, with Pokrovsk a particular target. But since the start of the month, they have intensified their attacks in the northeast, announcing plans to create a so-called 'buffer zone' in the Sumy and Kharkiv regions. Russia's Defence Ministry said on Saturday that its forces had seized the village of Zelenyi Kut, southwest of Pokrovsk. The Russian war in Ukraine is in its fourth year, but it has intensified in recent weeks. Ukraine conducted an audacious drone attackthis month that took out multiple aircraft inside Russia and also hit the bridge connecting Russia to the annexed Crimean peninsula using underwater explosives. Moscow ramped up its air assaults after the attack. Zelenskiy said Ukrainian troops had maintained defensive lines along more than 1,000 km of the frontline. He also dismissed Moscow's claims that Russian troops had crossed into the central Ukrainian region of Dnipropetrovsk. Zelenskiy said that Russia was sending small assault groups 'to get one foot on the administrative border' and make a picture or a video, but these attacks were repelled. The popular Ukrainian military blog DeepState, which relies on open-source data, said Ukrainian troops had repelled a Russian attack in the area, but also reported Russian advances in other areas, including Pokrovsk. Dnipropetrovsk borders three regions that are partially occupied by Russia – Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. Russia now controls about one-fifth of Ukrainian territory. Zelenskiy acknowledged that Ukraine was unable to regain all of its territory by military force and reiterated his pleas for stronger sanctions to force Moscow into talks to end the war. Two rounds of peace talks in Istanbul produced few results that could lead to a ceasefire and a broader peace deal. The two sides agreed only to exchange prisoners of war. Several swaps have already been conducted this month, and Zelenskiy said he expected them to continue until June 20 or 21. In separate remarks made on communications platform Telegram on Saturday, he said that a new group of Ukrainian prisoners of war had come home as part of another swap with Russia. 'We continue to take our people out of Russian captivity. This is the fourth exchange in a week,' Zelenskiy wrote. Ukrainian officials responsible for exchanging prisoners said the vast majority of the soldiers released in the exchange had been held captive since 2022 with many captured during the more than 80-day siege of the Sea of Azov port of Mariupol. The officials said Kyiv had, meanwhile,received the bodies of 1,200 of its soldiers killed in the war with Russia. The bodies were handed over to Ukraine on Friday. Russian state media, citing sources, reported that Moscow had not received any of its war dead back from Kyiv.
Yomiuri Shimbun
5 hours ago
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Britain's Starmer Announces National Inquiry into ‘Grooming Gangs'
Reuters file photo British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, speaks during the Prime Minister's Questions at the House of Commons in London, June 11. June 14 (Reuters) — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Saturday he would accept a recommendation for a national inquiry into grooming gangs who sexually abused thousands of girls, having previously resisted calls for a statutory review. The scandal, which revealed how gangs of mostly Pakistani men had groomed, trafficked and raped young white girls more than a decade ago, returned to the political agenda this year after U.S. billionaire Elon Musk criticised the British government. On Saturday, Musk responded to a post on X thanking him for drawing attention to the matter, saying he is 'glad to hear this is happening.' Interior minister Yvette Cooper in January asked Louise Casey, a former senior official, to undertake a 'rapid audit' of the scale and nature of gang-based exploitation in Britain. Casey's report is expected to say that vulnerable white British girls were 'institutionally ignored' by police and local authorities fearing being accused of racism, Sky News reported on Saturday. '(Casey's) position when she started the audit was that there was not a real need for a national inquiry, over and above what was going on,' Starmer told reporters en route to the G7 summit in Canada on Saturday. 'She has come to the view that there should be a national inquiry on the basis of what she has seen. I have read every single word of her report and I am going to accept her recommendation,' he added. The Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch said Starmer had to be led by the nose to make what she said was the correct decision. 'I've been repeatedly calling for a full national inquiry since January,' she said. 'Many survivors of the grooming gangs will be relieved that this is finally happening. But they need a resolution soon, not in 10 years' time.'
