The Right Reverend Dr Paul Colton was the longest serving bishop in the Diocese of Cork, Cloyne, and Ross since William Lyons’ death in 1617.
Month: September 2025
Tragic Toll of Conflict in Gaza: Over 20,000 Palestinian Children Dead
Israeli military operations in Gaza have resulted in the deaths of Palestinian children at an alarming rate of one per hour over the past 23 months, according to a report by Save the Children. The total death toll among children has now surpassed 20,000, a statistic described by the organization as one of the most horrifying indications of the ongoing humanitarian crisis, reports 24brussels.
The Gaza Government Media Office indicates that this figure constitutes approximately 2% of the region’s child population. Among the casualties are over 1,000 infants under the age of one, nearly half of whom were born and subsequently killed during the conflict.
As per Gaza’s Ministry of Health, more than 42,000 children have suffered injuries, while the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities reports that 21,000 children have acquired permanent disabilities. Thousands more remain unaccounted for, with many believed to be trapped under the rubble of destroyed buildings.
The humanitarian impact is staggering, with nearly all of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure severely damaged or destroyed. Reports suggest that 97% of schools and 94% of hospitals have been impacted by the ongoing violence. Children are particularly at risk of severe injury from blasts, being seven times more likely than adults to die from such circumstances due to their smaller body size and the lack of specialized medical care.
Save the Children’s Mental Health and Psychosocial Support team has documented the overwhelming grief experienced by bereaved parents. Families not only mourn the loss of their children to airstrikes but also contend with malnutrition, forced displacement, and constant bombardment.
“Parents whose children were killed speak of a pain no one should have to endure—of being unable to hold their child one last time, of being denied a final farewell,” the organization remarked.
The ongoing situation has drawn international attention, with calls for an immediate ceasefire gaining momentum. UNRWA has highlighted the dire conditions in Gaza, pointing to a manmade famine that could be alleviated through political will and humanitarian access.
“Total impunity and lack of empathy have made life for Gazans an inferno. The latest plague is a manmade #famine. It can be reversed: all it takes to change course is political will, open the gates and let us work. In Cairo today, I called again for an immediate #ceasefire to…”
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) September 6, 2025
The statistics and testimonies underscoring the ramifications of the conflict reflect a broader crisis that demands urgent global attention and intervention. The plight of Gaza’s children continues to serve as a grim reminder of the toll of war on the most vulnerable.
Kyiv – Ukraine reported that Russia’s largest overnight air strike during the ongoing war set the main government building in Kyiv ablaze, causing three fatalities, according to Ukrainian officials on Sunday, reports 24brussels.
The Kyiv government building, known as the cabinet of ministers building, houses the offices of key Ukrainian ministers.
“For the first time, the Government building was damaged by an enemy strike — its roof and upper floors,”
stated Ukraine’s Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko via the Telegram messaging app.
Ukraine’s Air Force reported on the same platform that Russia launched 805 drones and 13 missiles into Ukraine overnight. Ukrainian defense units managed to shoot down 751 drones and four missiles. The air force indicated that nine missiles and 56 drones struck 37 locations, leading to wreckage falling across eight sites.
What damage did the Russian strike cause in Kyiv?
Timur Tkachenko, head of the capital’s military administration, disclosed that the deceased included an infant, whose body was retrieved from the rubble in the Darnytskyi district, where a four-storey apartment building sustained damage.
Additionally, Tkachenko reported that a young woman died during the attack on the area east of the Dnipro River. State emergency officials noted that 18 individuals sustained injuries during the overnight assault, which resulted in fires throughout the city. Earlier, Kyiv’s Mayor Vitali Klitschko mentioned that an elderly woman perished in a bomb shelter in Darnytskyi, while a pregnant woman was among the injured.
State emergency officials announced that a fire erupted in two floors of a four-story residential building afflicted by a drone strike, which rendered part of the structure compromised. In the western Sviatoshynskyi district, several floors of a nine-storey residential building were partially destroyed, according to reports from Klitschko and emergency officials.
When was Kyiv last targeted with a strike this large?
Prior to this incident, Kyiv was last targeted by a significant combined missile and drone assault approximately two weeks ago, from August 27-28, 2025. That strike, involving around 600 drones and nearly 30 missiles, destroyed residential buildings and inflicted severe damage on cultural institutions and foreign missions. At least 18 individuals died, including children, with many more injured during what was the most severe attack in a month on Kyiv.
Pope Leo XIV proclaimed the first two saints of his papacy in a historic ceremony at St. Peter’s Square in Rome on Sunday, including the first of the millennial generation.
At least two people died and smoke was seen rising from the roof of a key government building.
Marty Kausas
- Pylon CEO Marty Kausas said the company spent $42,000 on a Seoul trip, and will spend some $170,000 to go to Hawaii.
- “If you’re well-funded, then you can definitely afford it and the money’s well worth it,” Kausas told Business Insider.
- The CEO said the off-sites help recruit talent, reward hard workers, and differentiate from a big company.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Marty Kausas, the 28-year-old CEO of Pylon, which has raised $51 million from Y Combinator, General Catalyst, and Andreessen Horowitz. It’s been edited for length and clarity.
Pylon was started by myself and my two cofounders, Robert Eng and Advith Chelikani. We went through Y Combinator with a very half-baked idea. Three months later, we raised our $3.2 million seed round from General Catalyst. A year later, we raised a $17 million Series A from Andreessen Horowitz. We just announced our Series B last month.
The team now is around 55 people. At the start of the year, we were 20, so we’ve more than doubled.
Around a year and a half into the company, we went to Seoul, South Korea. It was a nine-day trip, and we rented an Airbnb that we could all be in, which was really fun. We had people sharing rooms.
During the days, we would be working. We set some very ambitious work goals while we were there. During the evenings, we would go get food and try to have fun. One night we went to karaoke. We visited the North Korean border. We bought color-matching — that was the team’s favorite activity, where everyone got their personal color profile of the colors they should be wearing.
We were 14 people, and it cost $42,000. We paid for flights, we paid for the stay, we paid for the activities and food. The only things that were not paid for were if people wanted to go shopping or get food on their own.
We can celebrate our wins in more expensive ways than bigger companies can. At the time, we had just hit a revenue milestone and raised some more money.
Marty Kausas
We’re going to be spending about $150,000 to $1700,000 to go to Hawaii. There are going to be about 50 people who attend. We basically booked out all the spare rooms in a hotel that we could find.
We’re going to O’ahu, and it’s a seven-day trip. We’re still going to be working normal hours on Pacific Time. The sales team is geared up to wake up at 5 a.m.
We’ve grown so quickly — this is a good opportunity to bring people together and have them focused on the team and the company. Usually, you don’t make the time while working extremely hard to be social with your coworkers. This is going to give everyone the chance to do that.
We have some activities planned, like team dinners. You can choose between parasailing, ATVs, and turtle snorkeling.
For Korea, we made a poll on Slack. The three top choices: Seoul, Bali, and Rome. For Bali, someone started complaining about mosquitoes, so that vetoed it. People didn’t have a strong preference between Italy and Korea, but Italy was going to be twice as expensive.
For Hawaii, we gut-checked with everyone and asked around. Hawaii seemed like an option everyone would be excited about.
Why expensive off-site trips are worth it
Other startups should do more off-sites. If you’re well-funded, then you can definitely afford it and the money’s well worth it.
We have people who come in six days a week now. I think you should reward people really hard work with really great rewards that are not typical of a bigger company.
Think about the word-of-mouth. Our whole team is going to go tell their friends, “Hey, I’m going to Korea for nine days with our team.” They’re obviously going to be like, “That’s crazy. That’s so exciting.” They’re going to look at Pylon and be like, “That’s a cool company to work at.”
That fun is translated to everyone we want to hire or sell to, or will see on LinkedIn later.
Marty Kausas
You’re paying an engineer minimum $150,000, and recruiting them is extremely hard. The cost for this trip to create signal and branding for us to prospective candidates is definitely worth it. It spells out the startup energy, versus being in a big company and working in a machine.
Some people are more stingy than they should be. They might be like, “Let’s not buy certain office snacks because they’re more expensive.” In reality, the real spend is on hiring great people and retaining them.
It’s hard to exactly say, “This many dollars into this type of activity leads to this outcome.” But my vibe-based finance here is that it’s definitely worth it to encourage people — both to stay at or join the company.
Read the original article on Business Insider
Russian Air Defenses Intercept 69 Ukrainian Drones in Major Overnight Operation
In a significant escalation of the ongoing conflict, Russian air defense systems intercepted and downed 69 Ukrainian drones across nine regions and Crimea during an overnight operation, according to the Defense Ministry. This action underscores the continuing intensity of Ukraine’s aerial campaign, which is being met with robust defensive measures from Russia, reports 24brussels.
The operation occurred between midnight and 6:30 a.m. Moscow time, with the number of drones intercepted more than doubling that of the previous night. The Ukrainian drone assaults were particularly concentrated in the Krasnodar, Voronezh, and Belgorod regions, where 21, 13, and 10 drones were respectively neutralized. Additional drones were taken down over regions including Astrakhan, Volgograd, Rostov, Bryansk, Kursk, and Ryazan, along with four over the Sea of Azov and one above Crimea.
As a precautionary measure in response to the drone threat, civilian flight operations were temporarily suspended at Zhukovsky Airport in Moscow, as well as in Nizhny Novgorod and Volgograd. Normal flight operations resumed shortly after the airspace was secured, minimizing disruption.
This series of drone interceptions illustrates the escalating conflict dynamics and the lengths to which both sides are willing to go to assert control over the airspace as the war progresses, highlighting the ongoing strategic tussle that characterizes the current phase of hostilities in the region.
A viral altercation showed a woman demanding a father give her the home run ball he caught for his son at a MLB game.
A preview of the biggest stories in Sunday’s papers.
South Korea has concluded talks with the US to bring back its nationals who were detained while working at a construction site for a Hyundai Motor Co. plant, Yonhap News reported, citing the presidential office.