Berlin, Germany, Oct 5, 2019 / 10:00 am (CNA).- Thirty years ago, prayers in St. Nicholas Church in Leipizig helped to bring about a peaceful revolution in the middle of Germany.
That revolution finally swept away the wall – and with it the tota… […]
Birmingham, England, Oct 4, 2019 / 05:01 pm (CNA).- An employment tribunal in England stated Wednesday that a biblical view of sex and gender is “incompatible with human dignity” in a ruling against a doctor who was denied employment after … […]
Belfast, Northern Ireland, Oct 3, 2019 / 04:41 pm (CNA).- The High Court in Belfast ruled Thursday that the region’s existing abortion law is in violation of the United Kingdom’s human rights commitments.
“It’s a very sad day that the court has denied the right to life for unborn children,” Bernie Smyth, director of the pro-life organization Precious Life, said Oct. 3. Smyth was present when the ruling was made.
The case challenging the legality of the country’s abortion laws was brought forward by a woman named Sarah Ewart, who was denied an abortion in 2013 after it was determined that her baby would not live outside the womb. Ewart, who lives in Belfast, traveled to England for the procedure and has been an advocate for abortion rights in Northern Ireland since then.
Justice Siobhan Keegan declined to make a formal declaration of incompatibility, due to the fact that there is already legislation in place that would make abortion legal in Northern Ireland in the near future. A bill was passed in July by the British parliament that will make both abortion and same-sex marriage legal in the region if a devolved government is not formed by Oct. 21.
Last year, a similar challenge to Northern Ireland’s abortion law was dismissed on a technicality. That case was led by Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, which the judge said had no legal standing to appeal the abortion law.
At that time of the dismissal, the court said there would be a stronger case if it were to be led by a woman who was unable to have an abortion after becoming pregnant after sexual assault or who was carrying a baby with an abnormality. Ewart stepped in to lead this new case.
While elective abortion is legal in the rest of the United Kingdom up to 24 weeks, currently it is legally permitted in Northern Ireland only if the mother’s life is at risk or if there is risk of permanent, serious damage to her mental or physical health.
In September, thousands of people took to the streets of Northern Ireland to protest abortion coming to the country. The “March for their Lives” was organized by Precious Life, who at the time told CNA they were “heartened and encouraged” by the strong turnout, which was estimated to be over 20,000.
The people of Northern Ireland made “ a strong stand against the extreme and undemocratic legislation that Westminster is forcing on Northern Ireland,” said Smyth.
“We believe Northern Ireland is being used as a Trojan horse to push for full ‘decriminalisation’ of abortion across the UK, a euphemism for the full legalisation of abortion through the whole nine months of pregnancy,” said Smyth.
Bills to legalize abortion in cases of fatal fetal abnormality, rape, or incest failed in the Northern Ireland Assembly in 2016.
Northern Irish women have been able to procure free National Health Service abortions in England, Scotland, and Wales since November 2017.
London, England, Oct 3, 2019 / 02:01 pm (CNA).- The High Court of Justice ruled Thursday that the parents of Tafida Raqeeb may take her to Italy for medical treatment. The five-year-old girl has been comatose since February, and UK doctors want to remove her life-sustaining treatment.
Doctors at Royal London Hospital, where Raqeeb is on life support, had barred her parents (Muhhamed Raqeeb and Shalina Begum) from taking her abroad for treatment. Barts Health NHS Trust, which operates the hospital, had asked that the court find that ending Raqeeb’s life-sustaining treatment is in her best interest.
Alistair MacDonald, the High Court judge, wrote in his Oct. 3 ruling that “where a child is not in pain and is not aware of his or her parlous situation, these cases can place the objective best interests test under some stress”.
“Tests must be looked for in subjective or highly value laden ethical, moral or religious factors… which mean different things to different people in a diverse, multicultural, multi-faith society,” stated MacDonald, who before his appointment as a judge practised family law, and is regarded as an expert on children’s rights.
He wrote that continued treatment was “consistent with the religious and cultural tenets by which Tafida was being raised”.
“There is no justification for interfering with the right to receive treatment in another EU member state,” the judge said.
“Transfer for treatment to Italy is the choice of her parents in the exercise of their parental responsibility and having regard to the sanctity of Tafida’s life being of the highest importance, I am satisfied, on a fine balance, that it is in Tafida’s best interests for life-sustaining treatment to continue,” Macdonald found.
The BBC reported that lawyers for Barts Health NHS Trust “said hospital bosses would consider appealing against the ruling.” They have 21 days to do so. The NHS trust said MacDonald’s decision “has clear ramifications that go beyond Tafida,” and could affect other patients being cared for in its hospitals. It stated: “The judge has granted us more time to consider the implications of this judgment for the Trust, other NHS organisations, doctors and patients.”
Two doctors from the Gaslini Children’s Hospital in Genoa examined Raqeeb via video link in July, and they agreed to care for her in Italy, saying they did not believe her to be brain dead. Her family have raised money for her transfer.
A lawyer for the Italian hospital told the court, according to The Evening Standard, that “When you drill down, it is based on differing views of what quality of life Tafida has. Clinicians (in England) don’t think she has a quality of life. Her parents do.”
Raqeeb suffered an arteriovenous malformation which resulted in a burst blood vessel in her brain, and has been in a coma since Feb. 9.
The AVM triggered cardiac and respiratory arrest, as well as a traumatic brain injury. Doctors at the Royal London Hospital say there is no chance she will recover from her coma, and declared any further medical treatment futile.
Raqeeb’s family are Muslim, and have argued that Islamic law “said only God could take the decision to end her life,” the BBC reported.
Begum, a solicitor, has said she wants to “exercise her rights as a parent.”
Muhhamed Raqeeb said he and Begum were thrilled by the High Court’s judgement.
According to The Guardian, Begum said that “We have always had Tafida’s best interests at heart and we have never wanted to come to court to have to argue for our rights to seek continued care in a world-class hospital [the Gaslini] willing to give her the treatment she needs. The entire experience of having to fight for our daughter’s life over the last three months has been exhausting and traumatic for all of her family and we are glad it is now finally over.”
She added that Tafida “is not dying and we are continuously seeing small but important signs that she is gradually improving and we have always been hopeful that she might make something of a recovery if she is just given the time and the right treatment to continue to improve.”
Begum commented, “If it happens to me, I want my life to continue until a time that God actually takes me, not withdraw life support from me.”
David Lock, a barrister for Raqeeb and Begum, said the judgement was an “enormous relief” and that the family “wanted to get on with the transfer” to Gaslini Children’s Hospital.
And Paul Conrathe, a solicitor for the family, said MacDonald’s ruling recognized “that a child’s best interests are not merely medical, but include broader social and religious values. It also recognised the legal right of parents to request life-prolonging treatment in another EU state so that their child can be treated under that system of care and ethics.”
He added, according to The Telegraph, that Raqeeb’s parents “look forward to her receiving outstanding care at the Gaslini hospital in Genoa. They will also feel at peace knowing that Tafida will be cared for under the Italian ethical and legal system.”
Bishop John Sherrington, an auxiliary bishop of Westminster and the English and Welsh bishops’ representative on life issues, welcomed the ruling, which he said “has taken account of the wishes of Tafida’s parents and their innate urge to do all they can to help their daughter in what are truly tragic circumstances. The heart-breaking illness of Tafida Raqeeb and the distress which the illness of a child causes parents touches the hearts of many people.”
“I trust that all the medical professionals will cooperate to continue to give her the best possible care and appropriate treatment. Such international cooperation is essential good practice in the care of tragically difficult lives,” he continued.
In July, Bishop Sherrington had urged that the public be reserved in judgement on Raqeeb’s case, saying that “difficult dilemmas have to be faced. In that process, I hope that all due weight will be given to the wishes of her parents, while also respecting the clinical judgement of the doctors caring for her. Those of us not in possession of all the relevant information might best be reserved in our judgement.”
Katie Gollop, a barrister representing Barts Health NHS Trust, said MacDonald’s ruling could affect other children.
Raqeeb’s case follows similar campaigns by parents with children in NHS care. Charlie Gard, Alfie Evans, and Isaiah Haastrup were all gravely ill children on life-support treatment. The parents of each of those children lost court battles in recent years against hospitals that wanted to end their treatment, and prohibit them from being taken abroad for treatment.
The NHS trust cited both Gard’s and Evans’ cases in its arguments against continuing treatment for Raqeeb and against allowing her to receive treatment elsewhere.
Rome, Italy, Oct 2, 2019 / 12:30 pm (CNA).- The Italian bishops conference have condemned a proposal from Italy’s education minister that crucifixes should be removed from public school classrooms.
“I believe schools should… […]
Belfast, Northern Ireland, Oct 1, 2019 / 03:04 pm (CNA).- Religious leaders are calling on Northern Ireland Secretary Julian Smith to reconvene the region’s legislative assembly, in order to avoid new liberalizing abortion laws which are set to take effect later this month.
“Our Northern Ireland political parties have it in their own hands to do something about this,” the religious leaders said in a Monday joint statement.
The British parliament voted in July to add same-sex marriage and a loosening of abortion restrictions as amendments to the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation) Bill, which is designed to keep the region running amid a protracted deadlock in the Northern Ireland Assembly.
If Northern Ireland Assembly is not reconvened by Oct. 21, the expansion of abortion rights and the legalization of same-sex marriage will take effect. Secretary Smith would be mandated to put the laws into effect by March 31, 2020.
The Northern Ireland Catholic bishops’ conference has previously condemned the legislation’s “unprecedented” use of authority to legalize abortion in the region.
Leaders of the Catholic Church, the Church of Ireland, Methodist Church in Ireland, Presbyterian Church in Ireland, and the Irish Council of Churches, in a joint statement Monday called on their congregations to lobby their locally elected representatives, and ask them to reconvene the assembly before the deadline.
“There is no evidence that these [legal] changes reflect the will of the people affected by them, as they were not consulted. They go far beyond the ‘hard cases’ some have been talking about,” the statement reads.
“We are, along with others, gravely concerned that the imposition of this Westminster legislation,” the leaders wrote, calling for two special days of prayer over the weekend of October 12-13 for the unborn and for women facing difficult pregnancies and their families.
The Northern Ireland Assembly has been suspended for the past two years due to a dispute between the two major governing parties. The DUP, the largest party, is opposed to changing the law. Sinn Féin, another prominent party in Northern Ireland, backs a liberalization of the abortion law.
The DUP has said it is ready to return to the Assembly “immediately without pre-conditions,” according to the Belfast Telegraph.
Last year, the Republic of Ireland held a referendum in which voters repealed the country’s pro-life protections, which had recognized the life of both mothers and their babies. Irish legislators then enacted legislation allowing legal abortion in what had long been a Catholic and pro-life stronghold.
Elective abortion is legal in the rest of the United Kingdom up to 24 weeks, while currently it is legally permitted in Northern Ireland only if the mother’s life is at risk or if there is risk of permanent, serious damage to her mental or physical health.
Northern Irish women have been able to procure free National Health Service abortions in England, Scotland, and Wales since November 2017.
The UK government’s plans to decriminalize abortion in Northern Ireland has garnered opposition from hundreds of health professionals in the region, who the BBC reports have written to Secretary Smith expressing opposition and calling for reassurance that as “conscientious objectors,” they will not have to perform or assist abortions.
The Northern Ireland Office, the department of the UK government which oversees the region’s affairs, is launching an “awareness campaign” in November to educate “women and healthcare professionals” on the likely changes to abortion law, the BBC reports.
An estimated 20,000 people marched in Belfast on Sept. 7, in opposition to the loosening of abortion restrictions, in a demonstration organized by the pro-life group Precious Life.
The people of Northern Ireland made “a strong stand against the extreme and undemocratic legislation that Westminster is forcing on Northern Ireland,” Bernadette Smyth, founder of Precious Life, told CNA.
In June 2018, the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission challenged the region’s abortion laws in the UK Supreme Court. While the Supreme Court concluded that the laws violated human rights law by banning abortion in cases of fatal fetal abnormality, rape, and incest, it threw out the case saying it had not been brought forward by a person who had been wrongfully harmed by the law.
London, England, Sep 30, 2019 / 10:25 am (CNA).- The leading English bishop said Sunday that Blessed John Henry Newman offers an important witness for the Catholic Church in England during difficult times, and is a patron for the call of every Catholic… […]
Rome, Italy, Sep 27, 2019 / 03:41 pm (CNA).- Pro-life advocates are decrying the ruling of an Italian court this week that decriminalized euthanasia and assisted suicide in the cases of patients who have an “irreversible” condition and are experiencing “intolerable suffering.”
According to the court’s ruling, anyone who “facilitates the suicidal intention… of a patient kept alive by life-support treatments and suffering from an irreversible pathology” will not be penalized, The Telegraph reported.
The ruling made in the majority-Catholic country was met with strong opposition from the country’s Catholic bishops’ conference and other opponents of euthanasia and assisted suicide.
The ruling creates “the preconditions for a culture of death, in which society loses the light of reason,” Bishop Stefano Russo, Bishop Emeritus of Fabriano-Matelica and secretary-general of the conference, said after the decision, according to the AP.
The decision came after the court considered the case of Fabiano Antoniani, known as DJ Fabo, who in 2017 died at the age of 40 at a euthanasia clinic in Switzerland. The DJ had quadriplegia and was left blind after a serious car accident in 2014, and required assistance for eating and breathing.
Marco Cappato, an activist for euthanasia and assisted suicide, had been accused of assisting in DJ Fabo’s death, but was effectively cleared by the court. Under the previous law, he would have faced a possible 12 years in prison for participating in an assisted suicide.
“…as of today, all of us in Italy are freer,” Cappato said after the ruling, The Telegraph reported.
A week prior to the ruling, Pope Francis told an audience of Italian doctors that euthanasia and assisted suicide offer “false compassion.”
“It is important that the doctor does not lose sight of the singularity of each patient, with his dignity and fragility. A man or a woman to accompany with conscience, with intelligence and heart, especially in the most serious situations,” he said Sept. 20.
“With this attitude, one can and must reject the temptation – induced also by legislative changes – to use medicine to support a possible desire for death by the patient, providing assistance to suicide or causing death directly with euthanasia,” Francis added.
Euthanasia differs from assisted suicide in that it occurs when someone else is the one diretly to kill the patient, typically through a lethal dose of medication. Assisted suicide occurs when a patient administers a lethal dose of medication or some other lethal medical intervention to kill themselves.
Care Not Killing, a UK-based organization that promotes palliative care instead of euthanasia or assisted suicide, expressed “concern and disappointment” at the decision of the Italian court in a statement.
“Alarmingly, this ruling seems to allow for those with chronic, non-life threatening conditions, which in the UK would apply to around 11 million people,” Dr. Gordon Macdonald, Chief Executive of Care Not Killing, said in the statement.
“The current law exists to protect the terminally ill, disabled people and the vulnerable from feeling pressure, real or perceived from ending their lives as we often see in those places that made this change,” he said.
Concerns about coercion and discrimination against the elderly, the disabled, and the mentally ill are common among opponents of assisted suicide and euthanasia.
Macdonald noted that in the states of Oregon and Washington, where assisted suicide is legal, terminally ill patients who choose to die often cite fears of being a “burden” on family or caretakers as the reason for their decision.
He also noted that cancer patients or others with serious illnesses in these states have been “refused potentially life-saving and life-extending treatments, while being offered the poison to kill themselves.”
Macdonald also noted that in Canada, which legalized euthanasia and assisted suicide in 2016, promises of improved palliative care have “not materialized” and any safeguarding measures originally put in place have already been removed. In the Netherlands and Belgium, such laws have expanded to allow non-mentally competent adults and “even children” to choose euthanasia or assisted suicide, he added.
“This is why Parliamentarians across the UK have repeatedly rejected attempts to introduce assisted suicide and euthanasia, more than ten times since 2003, out of concern for public safety, including in 2015 when the House of Commons overwhelmingly voted against any change in the law by 330 votes to 118,” he noted.
“It also explains why not a single doctors group or major disability rights organization supports changing the law, including the British Medical Association, the Royal College of General Practitioners, the Royal College of Physicians, the British Geriatric Society and the Association for Palliative Medicine. Our current law does not need changing.”
Simone Pillon, an Italian legislator, told The Telegraph that human life is “sacred and inviolable” and that the ruling would “weigh on (the judges’) consciences for life.”
A Catholic association of doctors told The Telegraph that they would not comply with the new ruling.
Berlin, Germany, Sep 24, 2019 / 04:00 pm (CNA).- The apostolic nuncio to Germany has written to the country’s bishops, comparing a recent letter from Pope Francis to German Catholics with a historic Nazi-era encyclical of Pius XI.
In a letter to mark the opening of the German bishops’ conference’s plenary session on Monday, Archbishop Nicola Eterovic reiterated the appeal of Pope Francis to the bishops that they focus on evangelization and maintain unity with the universal Church during their “binding synodal process.”
In June, Francis wrote to German Catholics about the state of the Church in their country, and to offer his own priorities and methodology for the syndoal path being undertaken there.
The German bishops’ plenary meeting runs from Sept. 23-25, at the end of which they will vote on draft statutes for the creation of a “Synodal Assembly.”
“The letter of the Holy Father deserves special attention,” Archbishop Nicola Eterovic wrote in his welcoming address to the German bishops on Monday, Sept. 23.
“It is indeed the first time since the encyclical of Pius XI, Mit brennender sorge — ‘With burning concern’ — that the pope has dedicated a letter to the members of the Catholic Church in Germany in particular.”
Eterovic – originally from Croatia – pointed out that while “the encyclical of 14 March 1937 denounces the inadmissible interventions of the National Socialist regime in the affairs of the Catholic Church, the current letter deals with issues within the Church.”
“As the representative of the Holy Father in Germany, I am pleased that the contents of the papal letter will be the subject of the study day during this assembly. I do not doubt that the pope’s letter will positively influence the so-called Synodal Path.”
In his own letter, the archbishop repeatedly stressed the need for unity with the universal Church, as expressed by the pope.
“Unity between the universal Church and particular Churches is essential for the effectiveness of evangelization,” Eterovic wrote, quoting Francis’ June letter.
“It is especially in these times of ‘strong fragmentation and polarization to ensure that the Sensus Ecclesiae actually lives in every decision we make and that it nourishes and permeates all levels… The universal Church lives in and from the particular Churches, just as the particular Churches live and flourish in and from the universal Church; if they were separated from the universal Church, they would weaken, perish and die. Hence the need to maintain communion with the whole Body of the Church always alive and effective.”
The nuncio said the pope wanted to remind the German bishops that communion “helps us to overcome the fear which isolates us in ourselves and in our particularities, so that we can look into the eyes and listen to those who are there, or so that we can renounce needs and thus accompany those who have remained on the roadside.”
The archbishop concluded by warning the German bishops against the temptation to seek easy solutions in the face of the crisis of faith in the country.
Citing Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the Protestant theologian murdered by the Nazis, Eterovic said that relying on the “cheap grace” cannot be the basis for renewal, and is the “mortal enemy of our Church.” Instead, he urged the bishops to “struggle” for the “expensive grace” that is found through focusing on evangelization, as called for by the pope.
Eterovic concluded his letter by underlining the essential link between people, faith, and evangelization in the communion of the Church.
“As a community of believers, as a communion of lived and preached hope, as a community of fraternal love, the Church must unceasingly hear for herself what she must believe, what are the reasons for her hope, and what the new commandment of love is.”
CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language partner, contributed to this story
Fulda, Germany, Sep 24, 2019 / 12:10 pm (CNA).- The Church in Germany must revise its synodal plans in line with the pope’s leadership and the universal Church, Cardinal Rainer Woelki told the plenary session of the German Episcopal Conference Tuesday morning.
Speaking on the second day of the three-day meeting, Woelki, who is the Archbishop of Cologne, told the bishops that Pope Francis had offered them essential “fatherly advice” in his June letter to the Church in Germany.
“Let us take the pope very seriously!” Woelki told the bishops, as he called for key changes to be made to the synodal plans in order to bring them in line with Francis’ recommendations.
The bishops are meeting in Fulda from Sept. 23-25. Tomorrow they are expected to vote on the adoption of draft statutes for the “binding synodal process” announced by Cardinal Reinhard Marx earlier this year.
Woelki outlined several key themes in the pope’s letter which, he said, the bishops must honor, especially noting Pope Francis’ call for a focus on evangelization and communion with the wider Church.
The Church in Germany must begin by “re-evangelizing itself” is an “indispensable prerequisite” for its wider mission, Woelki said, noting that Francis’ letter made clear that this required the bishops to remain rooted in the essential unity of faith, in Christ, and with the whole Church.
“This is the indispensable sign for our Synodal Way, which has to run like a thread through it, so that the Synodal Way can bear true fruit. The Pope’s letter leaves no doubt about that.”
The pope’s letter has become a focal point for debate as the German bishops continue their deliberations on the creation of a Synodal Assembly in partnership with the Central Committee of German Catholics. Yesterday, the Apostolic Nuncio in Germany, Archbishop Nikola Eterovic, wrote to the German bishops, reminding them that the June letter was the first time a pope had written to all the German faithful since the rise of Nazism, and that it is essential that they listen to Francis.
Woekli said that the pope’s warning against a synod inspired by a “new Pelagianism,” focused on structural reform and bringing the Church into conformity with the zeitgeist, is an important exhortation.
“It is no coincidence that the Holy Father warns against a tendency that seems to me to be typical for Germany,” Woekli said, quoting the pope as he described “this old and ever new temptation of the promoters of Gnosticism […] who, in order to make their own name and reputation, to increase their doctrine and glory, have tried to say something always new and different from what the Word of God has given them.”
While it is important to enable the broad participation of believers in the life of the Church, Woelki said, this cannot be conflated or confused with the legitimate teaching and governing authority of the bishops, “the guarantor of apostolicity and catholicity.”
Referencing the recent Vatican assessment of the draft statutes for the Synodal Assembly, the cardinal reminded the bishops that there is a crucial difference between a parliamentary approach to Church governance and the proper role of discussion and consultation before the exercise of legitimate decision-making authority.
“The Synodal Way must not be walked without the universal Church. The [pope’s] letter urges this perspective when it says: ‘It is about living and feeling with the Church and in the Church[…] The universal church lives in and out of the particular churches, just as the particular churches live and flourish in and out of the universal church; if they were separated from the universal Church, they would weaken, corrupt and die.’”
The German synodal plans include the formation of working groups, called synodal fora, which are considering the themes of increasing women’s participation in Church ministries and offices, reforming Church teaching on sexual morality, and revising discipline in priestly life.
Several of these groups, formed in partnership with the Central Committee of German Catholics, have already begun work and are expected to advance proposals at odds with universal Church teaching, something Woelki said would go against the pope’s clear instructions.
“Pope Francis reminds us that the faith of the particular Churches is always located in the faith of the whole Church and must be found there,” he said. “In the long run, there cannot and should not be different ways of dealing with fundamental issues of faith and morality that would not only jeopardize, but possibly violate, the high good of unity that we profess in the Creed as an attribute of the Church.”
“The stipulations of the faith, which belong to the unchangeable existence of doctrine of the Church, cannot and therefore must not be put up for debate in the Synodal Way. The impression must not be conveyed that there would be a quasi-parliamentary vote on the faith,” Woelki insisted.
Vatican criticism of the German plans, put forward in a Sept. 4 letter to Cardinal Reinhard Marx from Cardinal Marc Ouellet, prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, raised a number of concerns. Foremost of these is the plan to invest the Synodal Assembly with “deliberative power” to pass resolutions on issues touching Church teaching and governance.
Woelki also said that listening to the pope’s instructions does not mean halting the synodal process.
“The Pope’s letter emphasizes that this does not mean ‘not going forward, not changing anything, and perhaps even not debating or arguing.’ But this must be done with the consciousness, as the pope says, ‘that we are essentially part of a larger body that claims us, that waits for us and needs us, and that we claim, expect and need.’”
He concluded by urging the other German bishops to make necessary changes to the synodal structures and topics for consideration, pointing to the alternative version he presented in August, which made explicit that the synodal body had a strictly consultative role and suggested alternative topics for consideration, centered on the evangelization.
“Together with the Holy Father, I again warn against taking a substantial and formal path that would take us out of the worldwide body of Christ. Our involvement in the faith of the universal Church, whose integrity we serve not least in the episcopal ministry, excludes any negotiation or a vote on matters of faith. This also applies to ecclesiastical discipline, insofar as it is embedded in the overall church context.”
“Let’s take the pope really seriously,” Woelki concluded. “We do not need agitated activism, but the serenity of all who are fully committed to Christ.”
“It is crucial that the Church in Germany shows with words and deeds how beautiful it is to live in the presence of the Lord, to know that He accompanies and surrounds us: For the joy of the Lord is our strength.”
© Catholic World Report