- To mark his 71st birthday, Pope Leo XIV issued a decree repealing the 2021 COVID-era salary cuts, effectively restoring pay for many Vatican employees.
- He canceled plans to move the Vatican’s archives offsite and ordered a new building inside Vatican City to house manuscripts and archival collections.
- On his birthday he visited the Vatican Library (noting his mother was a librarian) and opened a new “water” art exhibition, the first in a five-year series.
Latest stories in Books and Literature.
- Long lines formed as people queued to chat, browse and say goodbye to Kowloon's independent bookstore "Have a Nice Stay" before it shut on Aug. 30.
- The shop — started in 2022 by former Stand News journalists — blamed a July police raid, financial pressure, uncertainty over its premises and vague "red lines" about which books are allowed.
- Its closure is one more sign of the rapid dwindling of Hong Kong's independent bookstores since Beijing's 2020 national security law, which eroded many civic spaces.
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