Pope Leo says civilians in Ukraine are suffering, calls for war to end

Pope Leo on Sunday said ongoing Russian attacks against Ukraine were ‌leaving ‌civilians in ‌the ⁠country exposed ‌to the cold of winter, and called for ⁠an end to ‌the conflict. (AP)
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Updated 25 January 2026
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Pope Leo says civilians in Ukraine are suffering, calls for war to end

  • ‘I urge everyone to intensify their efforts to end this war’

MILAN: Pope Leo on Sunday said ongoing Russian attacks against Ukraine were ‌leaving ‌civilians in ‌the ⁠country exposed ‌to the cold of winter, and called for ⁠an end to ‌the conflict.

“The ‍protracted ‍hostilities ... have ‍increasingly serious implications for civilians,” Pope Leo said after his weekly Angelus ⁠prayer.

“I urge everyone to intensify their efforts to end this war.”


Sudanese man jailed in UK for murdering asylum hotel worker

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Sudanese man jailed in UK for murdering asylum hotel worker

  • Deng Chol Majek followed Rhiannon Whyte, 27, to a railway station in October 2024
  • He stabbed her 23 times to the head, chest ⁠and arm with a screwdriver

LONDON: A Sudanese asylum seeker was jailed on Friday for a minimum of 29 years for murdering a woman who worked at the hotel in central England where he and other migrants were being housed.
Anti-immigration activists have seized on other criminal cases involving asylum seekers, predominantly young men, in hotels to argue that they are a danger to nearby communities.
Last summer, a ⁠number of protests at asylum hotels across England – sparked by the arrest of an Ethiopian asylum seeker for sexually assaulting a teenage girl and a woman – turned violent.
The Labour government, nervous of the rise of the anti-immigration ⁠Reform UK party in opinion polls, has promised to clamp down on illegal immigration and, by 2029, to stop placing asylum seekers in hotels while their cases are processed.
Deng Chol Majek followed Rhiannon Whyte, 27, to a railway station in October 2024 after she finished her shift.
He stabbed her 23 times to the head, chest ⁠and arm with a screwdriver. She died in hospital three days later.
Majek was convicted in October and sentenced on Friday to life imprisonment with a minimum of 29 years at Coventry Crown Court, where some anti-immigration protesters gathered outside for the hearing.
Judge Michael Soole said the murder was “particularly vicious” and told Majek there had been a “chilling composure in every aspect of your behavior.”