South China Morning Post - Americas

Pope Leo held the central event of his 12-day South America tour on Friday, an outdoor mass in northern Peru where he told a vast crowd of people who once knew him as their bishop that he thanked God he was alive to see them. People arrived on foot and in lines of vehicles at an arid field outside Chiclayo, a city 10,700km (6,650 miles) from Rome, where the former Robert Prevost...

Pope Leo drew vast crowds to Argentina’s holiest shrine on Wednesday, the final day of his visit before he departs for Peru, where he spent nearly two decades as a missionary. Authorities said over 3 million people packed the streets around the Basilica of Lujan, with some climbing fences, barriers, trees and lamp posts for a glimpse of the pontiff. Crowds chanted “thank you Leo...

World leaders began arriving on Wednesday to start formal discussions at the United Nations climate change conference in Turkey, hoping to agree on concrete actions to curb global warming after a year of deadly floods, heatwaves and other climate-related disasters. But what can and will be accomplished at the 11-day Conference of the Parties, called Cop31, remains to be seen. Pa...

Trinidad ⁠and Tobago’s law criminalising ⁠consensual sexual relations between ⁠male same-sex couples was overturned by a London court on Tuesday, after a legal challenge by a gay man who said the law breached his human rights. Jason Jones challenged the Caribbean nation’s ‌Sexual Offences Act – which made “buggery” and “gross indecency” illegal – as breaching his fundamental rig...

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva flew to Turkey to attend Cop31 on Monday, marking his first international trip since his surprise re-election two weeks ago. This year’s United Nations Climate Change Conference will take place in the Turkish city of Antalya from November 9 to 20. “We are going to show the world how Brazil is setting an example in environmental prese...