Latest news with #Francis'
Euronews
22-07-2025
- Euronews
This is Europe's best city, according to traveller survey
Florence has been named Europe's top city in Travel + Leisure's 2025 World's Best Awards, a reader-voted survey that highlights travellers' favourite destinations around the globe. The Tuscan capital came in 11th overall, the highest-ranking European city on this year's list. The top spot globally went to San Miguel de Allende in Mexico, followed by Oaxaca and Tokyo. While the overall top 10 was dominated by cities in Latin America and Asia, several European cities rounded out the list, all favoured by readers looking for culture, food and historic charm. Italy stands out with three cities on the list The rankings are based on nearly 180,000 reader responses. Cities were rated across six categories: sights and landmarks, culture, food, friendliness, shopping and value. Italy was the only European country with three cities in the top 25: Florence (11), Rome (18) and Siena (23). All earned praise for their timeless beauty, great food and culture, from centuries-old cathedrals and trattorias to cobblestoned streets full of local life. The results track with tourism data: Italy was the fourth most-visited country in the world in 2024, drawing more than 71 million international visitors. Florence continues to enchant travellers with its intimate scale, world-renowned art and sunlit piazzas. From the Uffizi Gallery's Botticellis to Florence Cathedral's terracotta dome, the Tuscan capital offers a walking-distance feast of masterpieces. Its rustic restaurants - many family-run for generations - add to the timeless atmosphere. Rome, meanwhile, offers something few cities can match: layers of living history. The Eternal City's blend of ancient ruins and street-level spontaneity earned high marks from readers. This year's Jubilee, an occasion that brings together Catholics from around the world every 25 years, is also taking place in the wake of Pope Francis' passing in April. And then there's the well-preserved Tuscan city of Siena. A UNESCO World Heritage site since 1995, the 12th-century city rises from rolling hills, with its medieval brick buildings and Gothic towers an immediate draw. Its lively restaurants and famed Piazza del Campo, where the Palio horse race unfolds twice each summer, set the pace for a city that feels like a welcome step back to a bygone era. Spain and Türkiye also make strong showings Spain saw two of its Andalusian cities land just behind Florence: Seville in 12th place and Granada in 13th. Both were recognised for their historical heritage and atmospheric old towns. Istanbul, bridging Europe and Asia, followed in 14th place. Seville is pure southern Spanish charm, complete with flamenco echoing out through winding cobblestoned streets, vibrant nightlife and grand heritage sites. Granada, lying at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains, casts a quieter image, but it's no less magical. The Alhambra – the hilltop fortress filled with fountains, gardens and intricate Islamic architecture – remains one of Europe's most awe-inspiring sites. But the city's appeal also lies in its narrow alleys and generations-old tapas bars. Meanwhile, Istanbul's full-flavoured food, incredible history and location at the meeting point of two continents make it one of the world's most exciting cities. France misses out One country was noticeably absent from the list. Despite being the world's most visited country – drawing over 100 million tourists annually – France did not have a single city in this year's top 25. While France remains perennially popular, the absence may reflect shifting preferences among the magazine's predominantly American readership. Smaller, slower cities with greater perceived value – and perhaps fewer issues with overtourism – appear to have gained ground over larger destinations such as Paris. The final European destination to make the cut – Portugal's Porto in 24th – reflects this change, too, even if its tourism industry is starting to surge. The takeaway might be that in a post-pandemic era shaped by value, authenticity and ease, even travel's perennial favourites aren't guaranteed a spot at the top.
See - Sada Elbalad
18-07-2025
- Entertainment
- See - Sada Elbalad
Connie Francis, "Pretty Little Baby" and "Who's Sorry Now" Singer, Dies at 87
Yara Sameh Connie Francis, the chart-topping pop singer of '50s and '60s classics like "Who's Sorry Now, 'Stupid Cupid,' 'Where the Boys Are' and the recently TikTok viral 'Pretty Little Baby,' has died. She was 87. Ron Roberts — Francis' longtime friend and president of her label, Concetta Records — first announced the news in a Facebook post on Thursday night, which Francis' official account reposted. 'It is with a heavy heart and extreme sadness that I inform you of the passing of my dear friend Connie Francis last night,' he wrote. 'I know that Connie would approve that her fans are among the first to learn of this sad news. More details will follow later.' The acclaimed singer had recently been hospitalized for 'extreme pain,' but had posted on Facebook July 4 that she was 'feeling much better after a good night.' Francis became one of the defining female singers of the '50s and '60s, topping the charts on multiple occasions and selling over 200 million records worldwide with hits like 'Stupid Cupid,' 'Who's Sorry Now' and 'Frankie.' In 1960, she became the first woman to reach No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with 'Everybody's Somebody's Fool,' and later became the first woman to have three songs hit No. 1. She recently experienced a resurgence when B-side 'Pretty Little Baby' went viral on TikTok, resulting in over 30 million new streams of the song and its entry into Spotify's global and U.S. charts as well as reaching the top five of iTunes' U.S. pop songs chart. Francis then joined TikTok, where she thanked her newfound fans in a video, saying she was 'flabbergasted and excited' by the song's popularity over 60 years later. Born Connie Franconero in Newark, N.J. on December 12, 1937, Francis regularly performed at talent contests and pageants in the neighborhood and was eventually advised, before an appearance on the variety show 'Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts,' to change her last name to Francis for easier pronunciation. She had a rocky start in the music industry, with her first eight singles failing commercially after she signed to MGM Records in 1955. Though she had her first taste of success in 1957 with the Marvin Rainwater duet 'The Majesty of Love,' which broke into the Billboard Hot 100, her recording contract with MGM came to an end. Francis considered pursuing a career in medicine and was accepted into New York University, but at what was meant to be her final session, she recorded a cover of the 1923 song 'Who's Sorry Now.' Despite the song had a slow start, Dick Clark played it on his 'American Bandstand' in January 1958 and invited her to perform it on 'The Saturday Night Beechnut Show' (which would later become 'The Dick Clark Show'). The performance launched her career, and 'Who's Sorry Now' reached No. 1 on the U.K. Singles Chart and No. 4 in the U.S., resulting in MGM Records renewing her contract. After teaming up with the songwriting duo Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield, Francis had a slew of charting hits comprising both original and cover songs like 'Stupid Cupid,' 'My Happiness,' 'Among My Souvenirs,' 'Lipstick on Your Collar' and 'Frankie.' She followed that with an album of Italian songs, 'Connie Francis Sings Italian Favorites,' which released in late 1959 and broadened her reach to a more adult audience. But her success with pop continued into the early 1960s, earning more hits that reached the top 10: 'Breakin' in a Brand New Heart,' 'When the Boy in Your Arms (Is the Boy in Your Heart),' 'Second Hand Love' and 'Where the Boys Are.' Francis became one of the first recording artists to regularly make albums sung entirely in other languages, including in Italian, Yiddish, German, Romanian, Spanish and Irish. Her 1960 German-language song 'Die Liebe ist ein seltsames Spiel' reached No. 1 in West Germany and led to her becoming a hugely popular artist in Europe, representing the epitome of a female American pop singer to the global masses. Even during the Cold War, her songs were played and well received in the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia. In the mid-1960s, Francis' grip on the U.S. charts began to weaken as the Beatles and Rolling Stones took over. However, she remained a successful live performer and consistently sold out concerts in the U.S. and around the world. In 1969, her contract with MGM expired. The '70s brought a difficult period for Francis as she alleged she had been raped at a motel while appearing at the Westbury Music Fair in New York. Though the assailant was never found, she sued the motel chain for inadequate security and won a a $2.5 million settlement. However, the incident plummeted Francis into depression and she only recorded one album, 'Who's Happy Now?,' in 1978. She later underwent nasal surgery and lost her voice, rendering her unable to perform until 1981. That same year, her brother was killed by the mafia and Francis once again retreated from the spotlight. In 1984, she wrote about her struggles in the memoir 'Who's Sorry Now?,' which became a bestseller. During her later career, Francis continued to record music and perform live, headlining several shows in Las Vegas. She released another autobiography, 'Among My Souvenirs,' in 2017 and officially retired in 2018. Francis was married four times and was also in a relationship with singer Bobby Darin. During her third marriage to restaurateur Joseph Garzilli, she adopted a son named Joey. She was in a relationship with Tony Ferretti from 2003 until his death in 2022. She is survived by her son, Joey Garzilli. 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Miami Herald
17-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Miami Herald
Singer Connie Francis dies at 87. See how a new generation grew to love her
Connie Francis, a well-known singer and actress, died at age 87 after witnessing a new generation fall in love with her music. The pop vocalist was known for her 1958 hits like 'Stupid Cupid' and 'Who's Sorry Now.' Her cause of death has not been revealed. But another one of her songs, 'Pretty Little Baby,' recorded in 1962, took TikTok by storm, creating a viral trend among the younger generation. The song flooded the app, creating a viral sound where users would post covers, overlay the song with cute videos, or even use it as background music for something as simple as showing off their outfits. User @Annefrankhjernoe took to the app to show her 'slightly exaggerated version of this pretty little song.' The TikToker's video, which has been seen over 15.5 million times as of July 17, showed her putting her own spin on Francis' song with rifts throughout the tune. User @Sri took to the app to share a cover of Francis' song, 'Pretty Little Baby,' accompanied by her own added rifts inspired by @Annefrankhjernoe's video. @Sri's video been seen over 5.4 million times as of July 17. Other users took a simpler approach, like that of @Thebullyquad, who used the song to show off their Staffordshire bull terrier waiting for some much-needed cuddles. Some users like @Xsb3l took the lyrics literally and showed off an actual 'pretty little baby.' Some even participated in a spin-off of the trending song, like user @Baileytherottiexo, who posted a video changing the lyrics to 'Stinky little baby, you need a shower.' Francis, born with the name Concetta Franconero, was introduced to music at age 3 when her father, a dockworker and roofer who loved to play the concertina, put an accordion in her hands. She was born in Newark, New Jersey, and signed in 1955 to MGM Records, where she recorded 10 singles that all were unsuccessful, until her song 'Who's Sorry Now' sold a million copies six months after being shown on Dick Clark's 'American Bandstand' in 1958. Francis was also the first woman to top the Billboard Hot 100 charts with her record 'Everybody's Somebody's Fool. She deemed herself 'clearly out of touch' when it came to TikTok, where she shared how grateful she was for her newfound love from the newer generation. Francis revealed how 'astounded' she was by the newfound popularity of the song. Francis, wearing a necklace, full makeup and her hair freshly done, thanked a variety of celebrities like Kylie Jenner, Taylor Swift and Ariana Grande, for participating in the trend. TikTokers, despite their sadness upon hearing the news, went to the comments of her videos to share how happy they are with the resurgence of Francis' song. 'So glad she got to see her song go viral again after all those years - RIP Connie,' one person wrote. 'She died happy knowing that this generation likes her music. You will be missed. Thank you for the music,' another wrote.
Herald Malaysia
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Herald Malaysia
The Church prepares its first Jubilee for Catholic influencers
Rome prepares to host thousands of digital missionaries for a landmark gathering of prayer, formation, and fraternity on July 28–29. Jul 16, 2025 file photo of digital missionaries meeting to prepare for Jubilee By Sebastián Sansón FerrariFor the first time in its history, the Catholic Church will celebrate a Jubilee event within a Holy Year specifically dedicated to digital missionaries and Catholic influencers, formally recognising the digital environment as a true field of mission. The gathering will take place in Rome on July 28 and 29, 2025, coinciding with the opening days of the Youth Jubilee. Many young people who evangelise through social media will be actively involved in both celebrations. This unprecedented initiative, organised by the Dicastery for Communication, will bring together nearly one thousand digital missionaries from around the world, with strong representation from Latin America, the Caribbean, and Spain. These evangelizers proclaim the joy of the Gospel through social media, video platforms, blogs, and apps, offering a creative, accessible, and engaged Christian witness within the digital continent. For those unable to travel to the Eternal City, parallel virtual events will be offered through registration at the official website allowing many others to participate from their local contexts of mission. While in-person registration has closed, participants are still welcome to join online. The two main formative sessions of the Jubilee will also be livestreamed via the YouTube channel La Iglesia Te Escucha ("The Church Listens to You"). This initiative emerged in response to Pope Francis' call during the Synod on Synodality (2021–2024), which emphasised the importance of bringing the Good News into the digital world and ensuring no one is excluded from the synodal journey. It stands as a clear expression of a missionary Church, one that reaches out to the existential peripheries of contemporary society. Spirituality, formation, celebration The Jubilee program will unfold in three key phases. The spiritual component centres on the pilgrimage through the Holy Door—a hallmark of every Holy Year and a sign of interior renewal and openness to grace. This will be followed by a formative phase, featuring keynote presentations, workshops, and testimonies at the Auditorium Conciliazione. These sessions aim to provide pastoral tools for digital mission and foster spaces for shared reflection. The final phase will be a celebratory moment: a festival in Piazza Risorgimento highlighting art, music, and creativity as dynamic languages of evangelisation and communion in the digital sphere. Both venues are within walking distance of St. Peter's Square. Compassionate evangelisation in the digital space This Jubilee answers Pope Francis' invitation to be 'Good Samaritans' in the digital world. The Holy Father has urged the faithful to inhabit online spaces with compassion, humanity, and closeness, not merely through functional or technical presence, but through a pastoral approach of hope. He has repeatedly emphasised the need for a communication that listens, amplifies the voices of the voiceless, and disarms words marked by division or hostility—a theme also echoed by Pope Leo XIV in his first meeting with media professionals. The Jubilee also builds upon the first global gathering of digital evangelizers, held during World Youth Day in Lisbon in 2023. That event gave rise to an international network of missionaries, which is now being strengthened and projected toward the future through this Jubilee initiative. In the coming days, the Jubilee's official website will release a dedicated spiritual guide to help participants prepare internally for the event. Promotional materials and graphic resources are already available for download to inspire and support the missionary dimension of participants, whether in Rome or in the digital peripheries. A hymn that unites voices and cultures One of the highlights of the Jubilee's preparation has been the release of its official hymn, Todos ("Everyone"). The song is a collaborative project uniting Catholic artists from around the globe. The title Todos echoes Pope Francis' powerful affirmation during World Youth Day in Lisbon on August 3, 2023: 'In the Church, there is room for everyone, everyone, everyone!' The hymn captures the inclusive, synodal, and missionary spirit that animates this Jubilee.--Vatican News
Nahar Net
11-07-2025
- General
- Nahar Net
Pope prays for world to recognize urgency of climate crisis
by Naharnet Newsdesk 09 July 2025, 15:57 Pope Leo XIV prayed Wednesday for the world to recognize the urgency of the climate crisis and "hear the cry of the poor," as he celebrated the first papal Mass using a new set of prayers and readings inspired by Pope Francis' environmental legacy. The Mass, in the gardens of the Vatican's new ecological educational center at the papal summer estate in Castel Gandolfo, indicated a strong line of ecological continuity with Francis, who made environmental protection a hallmark of his pontificate. Wearing flowing green vestments, Leo presided at the liturgy in front of a statue of the Madonna and at the foot of a reflecting pool, immersed in the lush green gardens on an unusually cool summer day. He said the world needed to change its mindset about the planet and what is causing "the world to burn." "We must pray for the conversion of so many people, inside and out of the church, who still don't recognize the urgency of caring for our common home," he said. "We see so many natural disasters in the world, nearly every day and in so many countries, that are in part caused by the excesses of being human, with our lifestyle." An encyclical inspires a movement The private Mass was celebrated for about 50 staffers of the Laudato Si center, named for Francis' 2015 environmental encyclical Praised Be (Laudato Si in Latin), in which the first pope from the Global South blasted the way wealthy countries and multinational corporations had exploited the Earth and its most vulnerable people for profit. Leo approved the new Mass formula "for the care of creation," directing it to be added to the list of 49 Masses that have been developed over centuries for a specific need or occasion. Officials said it was crafted in response to requests stemming from Francis' encyclical, which in its 10 years has inspired a whole church movement and foundation to educate, advocate and sensitize the world to the biblically mandated call to care for nature. Leo, history's first American pope, has indicated he intends to further Francis' ecological legacy. A longtime missionary in Peru, Leo experienced firsthand the effects of climate change on vulnerable communities and has already spoken out about the need for climate justice for Indigenous peoples, in particular. In a message for the church's annual day of prayer for creation, Leo blasted the "injustice, violations of international law and the rights of peoples, grave inequalities and the greed that fuels them are spawning deforestation, pollution and the loss of biodiversity." He made no equivocations about what or who was to blame, identifying "climate change provoked by human activity." A Mass in nature's cathedral Leo celebrated the Mass during the first days of his vacation at Castel Gandolfo, a hilltop town overlooking Lake Alban in the cool hills south of Rome. He arrived on Sunday and will spend an initial two weeks there before returning to the Vatican and then heading back in August. He told those gathered that they were celebrating Mass in "what we might call a natural cathedral," surrounded by plants, flowers and nature. He said humanity's mission is the same as Christ's: to protect creation and bring peace and reconciliation in the world. "We hear the cry of the earth, we hear the cry of the poor, because this cry has reached the heart of God," he said. "Our indignation is his, our work is his." Archbishop Vittorio Viola, a Vatican official who helped craft the new liturgy formula, said the celebration Wednesday in the gardens was "ideal" given both its natural and symbolic significance. "The intuition that Pope Francis had was to think about this place as a sort of Laudato Si laboratory, a place that isn't about a superficial ecology, but provides a theological understanding of creation that then becomes action," he said. A carbon-neutral Vatican In another sign of his environmental commitment, Leo has indicated he plans to execute one of Francis' most important ecological legacies: The development of a 430-hectare (1063-acre) field in northern Rome into a solar farm that would generate enough electricity to meet the Vatican's needs and thus make Vatican City the world's first carbon-neutral state. The development would require an investment of just under 100 million euros (about $117 million), officials say, and needs the approval of the Italian parliament since the territory enjoys extraterritorial status that needs to be extended. Last year, Francis tasked a commission of Vatican officials with developing the Santa Maria di Galeria site, which was long the source of controversy because of electromagnetic waves emitted by Vatican Radio towers there. Leo visited the site in June and called it a "wonderful opportunity." He told RAI state television that the creation of such a farm would set "a very important example: we are all aware of the effects of climate change, and we really need to take care of the whole of creation, as Pope Francis has taught so clearly."
