Vatican & World News 07.10.2026

Laudato a Jesus Christus, Vatican and World News.

mission sunday and at his wednesday general audience poplio

reflects on the church's mission in today's world in

the vatican i'm francesca merlo israelis

have been marking three years since the hamas-led attack

on the 7th of october 2023 remembering those killed and those taken hostage the anniversary recalls an attack that devastated communities in southern israel

and that triggered the war in Gaza, bringing widespread destruction and suffering to Palestinians. Nathan Morley reports.

Israelis have been marking three years since the Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023.

They left around 1,200 people dead and 251 others were taken hostage.

Memorial events have been taking place across Israel.

They began with a nationwide minute's silence at 6.29 local time to mark the time the attacks began.

In Tel Aviv, people stopped their cars to pay their respects.

An art installation commemorating the victims was created at a beach on the Tel Aviv seafront.

However, across the city, anti-government protesters dyed the fountain in Disengoth Square red to mark the anniversary.

At the site of the Nova Music Festival, where 378 people were killed and 44 taken hostage, the mother of one of the victims said the attacks were unimaginable.

Abihairo Duj survived an attack on his kibbutz by Hamas, in which his wife and children were taken hostage.

When we walk around, we see something and it always reminds them of something that had happened on that day or in the upcoming 51 days when they were being held hostage in Gaza.

You know, even the smells, when they smell

smoke or something, it reminds them of something that had happened over there or some kind of food that they taste reminds them of the food that they had there.

In response to the October 7th attacks, Israel launched a military offensive in Gaza

in which more than 74,200 people have been killed. That's according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Much of Gaza has also been reduced to rubble. In addition to the anxiety caused by the conflict, many Palestinians now fear whether they will ultimately be able to remain on their land.

Alongside the UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham, other world leaders have shared their tributes today.

The French President Emmanuel Macron affirmed France's commitment to combating anti-Semitism and terrorism,

whilst Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, said that the EU remained ready to help turn today's fragile ceasefire into a durable peace based on a two-state solution.

For Vatican Radio, this is Nathan Morley reporting. In other news, convicted killer Krista Pike, who survived Tennessee's effort to execute her by lethal injection last week,

foiling the state's first attempt to put a woman to death in two centuries, has regained consciousness and is speaking, her lawyer said in a statement on Tuesday.

Despite severe injuries to her arms from the insertion

of intravenous lines during the aborted execution last Wednesday, Pike, aged 50, is, quote, still handcuffed and shackled to her hospital bed while she remains under medical care,

her team of public defence attorneys wrote. Elsewhere,

delegates gathered at a climate conference in Fiji have said that the world must increase its efforts to reduce emissions in order to keep global temperatures rises beneath 1.5 degrees Celsius.

As Joseph Tulloch reports, the conference is also discussing the limit, the impact of rising seas and extreme weather.

Pacific nations that are among the most vulnerable to climate change have gathered in Fiji for a ministerial-level meeting.

The nations are trying to influence the upcoming COP31 UN climate change forum in Turkey.

Among their priorities are securing better access to climate finance, protecting oceans, and respecting the target of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels.

That is, despite projections from the UN that the threshold will soon be exceeded.

The Fijian climate minister told representatives from more than 50 countries that, quote, we are hurtling past the 1.5 degree temperature limit.

She said that data simply confirms what Pacific nations can already see, the tide that reaches our homes, the pale reef our grandmothers no longer recognize, and the villages we have already had to relocate.