A New York priest who let popstar Sabrina Carpenter film provocative scenes for a music video inside his church has been accused of mismanagement and stripped of his duties. Monsignor Jamie Gigantiello was relieved of "any pastoral oversight or governance role" at the church, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn said in a statement. Church officials launched an investigation after the October 2023 music video release for Carpenter's hit song Feather, filmed inside the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church. The Diocese said the investigation found other instances of mismanagement beyond the music video that appalled some, including unapproved financial transfers.
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Turkish air strikes in drought-struck north-east Syria have cut off access to electricity and water for more than a million people, in what experts say may be a violation of international law. Turkey carried out more than 100 attacks between October 2019 and January 2024 on oil fields, gas facilities and power stations in the Kurdish-held Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), according to data collated by the BBC World Service. The attacks have added to the humanitarian crisis in a region reeling from a years-long civil war and four years of extreme drought exacerbated by climate change. Water had already been scarce, but attacks on electricity infrastructure in October last year shut off power to the region’s main water station, in Alouk, and it has not been working since. On two visits there, the BBC witnessed people struggling to get water. Turkey said it had targeted the “sources of income and capabilities” of Kurdish separatist groups it regards as terrorists.
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New Zealand's Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has formally apologised to victims of abuse in care homes, following an inquiry into one of the country's biggest abuse scandals. The historic apology, delivered in parliament, comes after a report found that 200,000 children and vulnerable adults had suffered abuse while in state and faith-based care between 1950 and 2019. Many of them included people from the Māori and Pacific communities and those with mental or physical disabilities. The government has since promised to reform the care system. “I make this apology to all survivors on behalf of my own and previous governments," said Luxon on Tuesday.
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