Progress continues to be slow as local officials do not have the capacity to respond to the high number of investigations, and some families of disappeared persons remain wary of collaborating with authorities.

Children are consistently the poorest age group in the United States, writes Robert David Sullivan. But will they be heard in Washington as they become outnumbered by people over 65?

The near-term hardship “won’t hit for a week or two,” Bishop Kopacz said. But “as time goes on this month, there’s going to be some real crises.”

German Catholics are embarking on what is being called a “synodal journey,” but it promises to be a potentially rocky one, focusing on subjects the church usually avoids.

"I am spiritually close to the victims of the episodes of violence that these days have bloodied Texas, California and Ohio, in the United States, affecting defenseless people," Pope Francis said.

People fainted on public transport in England. In Paris schools postponed exams, and the heat wave aggravated wildfires in Spain and Portugal. In Scandinavia it hastened Arctic melt.