Pope Francis waves to faithful at the end of the weekly general audience in the Paul VI hall at the Vatican, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2020. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
By Nicole Winfield
Pope Francis endorsed same-sex civil unions for the first time as pope while being interviewed for the feature-length documentary “Francesco,” which had its premiere at the Rome Film Festival on Wednesday.
The papal thumbs up came midway through the film that delves into issues he cares about most, including the environment, poverty, migration, racial and income inequality, and the people most affected by discrimination.
“Homosexual people have the right to be in a family. They are children of God,” Francis said in one of his sit-down interviews for the film. “What we have to have is a civil union law; that way they are legally covered.”
While serving as archbishop of Buenos Aires, Francis endorsed civil unions for gay couples as an alternative to same-sex marriages. However, he had never come out publicly in favor of civil unions as pope.
Director Evgeny Afineevsky had remarkable access to cardinals, the Vatican television archives, and the pope himself. He said he negotiated his way in through persistence, and deliveries of Argentine mate tea and Alfajores cookies that he got to the pope via some well-connected Argentines in Rome.
Actors Courtney B. Vance and Tosin Cole joined Cheddar News’ senior reporter Michelle Castillo at South by Southwest to talk about their new series “61st Street” on AMC. The show takes a look at the harshness of Chicago’s criminal justice system. When asked what he hopes the audience takes away from this show, Tosin Cole said, "Just some empathy and just showing a different perspective."
A recent survey from employment website Indeed and career growth platform Luminary found that at least half of women are considering a change to their careers over issues of unequal compensation and upward mobility as compared to men. Cate Luzio founder and CEO of Luminary, and Abbey Carlton, Indeed's global head of social impact, joined Cheddar News to talk about the study and working for women to push more self-advocacy. "I think the silver lining here is that women are in a moment where they can renegotiate the terms of work. And we're seeing that in this survey, women are thinking about what is my next step and what do I need in that next step. And compensation is right at the top of the list there,” said Carlton.
A new coalition called "Organizations For Pay Equity Now", or "OPEN" imperative, has launched with the goal of eliminating the gender pay gap among pre-IPO startups by 2027. More than 200 founders, CEOs and investors have already joined the coalition -- and it's only expected to grow. Emily Sweet, Lead of the OPEN imperative, joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss the new coalition and how it plans to achieve these ambitious goals.
Netflix launching a test to let primary account holders pay an extra fee for users outside their households. This comes as the streaming giant grapples with illicit password-sharing with over 30 percent of all Netflix users sharing their password with at least one person, according to research firm Magid.
Pedro Palandrani, Director of Research at GlobalX joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss.
Ukraine's Mariupol refuses to surrender to Russian forces, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was hospitalized, and a cyclist took on the Freedom Convoy in DC. Here is all the news you Need2KNow for Monday, March 21, 2022.
Neonvest is a platform connecting startups and entrepreneurs with experts in the VC space. The startup says it's in the process of raising a seed round of approximately $2.5 million from a mix of angel and institutional investors. Aakash Shah, co-founder of NeonVest, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Amazon closed its deal to buy MGM's many content brands for $8.5 billion, and Michael Pachter, a managing director at Wedbush Securities, joined Cheddar News to discuss the e-commerce giant's second-largest acquisition to date and how he thinks it will all pay off. "To make a movie today, you just can't even think about it for less than 30 million bucks, so 4,000 movies, I mean that's several billion dollars worth of assets," he said, noting how it would also add to Amazon's little-known ad-supported IMDb TV service. "I don't know that the IMDb TV guys actually talk to the Amazon Prime Video guys, but a lot of content, it makes the value of a Prime subscription much, much greater, and people are far, far less likely to churn even if they're only buying one package every three months."
