LONDON -- If you thought Italy’s demographic decline was bad, wait until you see Ukraine’s. With a fertility rate of just 0.9 children per woman, the granary of Europe is alarmingly close to South Korea’s notoriously low levels.
Insider reporters
28 Oct 2026
Alan Jesus Esparza
VATICAN CITY-- Pope Leo XIV has praised the popemobile as an “instrument of encounter” ahead of an exhibition at the Vatican Museums tracing nearly a century of papal vehicles and the Holy See’s collaboration with Mercedez-Benz.
Addressing executives of the German carmaker at the Vatican Wednesday, the pontiff said the vehicles had evolved from a means of transport into a way of bringing popes closer to the faithful during papal visits and celebrations, as stated in a release from the Holy See Press Office.
28 Oct 2026
Alan Jesus Esparza
ROME-- Italian police arrested 41 people in a major crackdown on the ‘Ndrangheta mafia in Calabria on Wednesday, including a local mayor and an alleged mafia boss whose wife was killed in an ambush four days earlier, police said.
The Carabinieri’s Special Operations Group and officers from Cosenza carried out the arrests following court order at the request of anti-mafia prosecutors.
28 Oct 2026
Philip Willan
27 Oct 2026
Alan Jesus Esparza
ROME – Amid preparations for the 400th anniversary of St Peter’s Basilica’s dedication on Nov. 18, the future of controversial plans to open a terrace bistro on a terrace above the world’s largest church remain uncertain following a management shake-up ordered by Pope Leo XIV, Vatican sources say.
27 Oct 2026
Alan Jesus Esparza
VATICAN CITY -- Pope Leo XIV will travel to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru from Nov. 6 to 17, beginning his trip next week as planned after doctors cleared him to make the journey following his lung cancer surgery, the Holy See Press Office confirmed.
In a statement issued Monday, the Vatican said the pontiff was recovering well and that medical examinations showed no need for further cancer treatment.
27 Oct 2026
Alan Jesus Esparza
ROME-- A Calabrian bishop has called for peace after mafia gunmen shot and killed Silvana Sibarelli, 60, the wife of Damiano Pepe, known as “Tripolino”. Investigators identify Pepe as a senior figure in the ’Ndrangheta mafia.
Bishop Francesco Savino of Cassano all’lonio made an appeal to the attackers to repent following the killing of Sibarelli. He urged residents to reject fear and silence.
“Repent! Lay down your weapons and take responsibility for the evil you have done,” he said in a statement issued on Oct.24.
26 Oct 2026
Ophelia Gregory
ROME – Following a militarily controlled chaos across Italian cities throughout the night before, on Sunday the sound of police helicopters was no longer heard over the eternal city.
25 Oct 2026
JAN FILIPOWICZ
ROME – Cultural quango ICCROM’s beleaguered director general, Aruna Francesca Gujral, has bewildered staff by ordering a rash of firings that will mean the UN agency no longer has a finance unit, unless the organisation’s Executive Board prevents the culling of employees, ICCROM sources say.
23 Oct 2026