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Live-Streamed Prayers for Stressed S. Korean Exam Parents

A woman prays at Seoul's Jogyesa Buddhist temple, where prayers are being held for students taking the university entrance exam. ANTHONY WALLACE / AFP
A woman prays at Seoul's Jogyesa Buddhist temple, where prayers are being held for students taking the university entrance exam. ANTHONY WALLACE / AFP
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Live-Streamed Prayers for Stressed S. Korean Exam Parents

A woman prays at Seoul's Jogyesa Buddhist temple, where prayers are being held for students taking the university entrance exam. ANTHONY WALLACE / AFP
A woman prays at Seoul's Jogyesa Buddhist temple, where prayers are being held for students taking the university entrance exam. ANTHONY WALLACE / AFP

Nine-hour prayer sessions, live-streamed speaking in tongues, bowing before a Buddhist altar 108 times: South Korean parents are turning to God as students sit a crucial exam Thursday.
The "Suneung" university entrance exam is a major event in the education-obsessed South, and officials take extreme measures, from rescheduling flights to pausing construction, to ensure students can give their best performance.
At a church in Seoul's wealthy Gangnam district, parents gathered for a nine-hour prayer marathon, with specific requests to God tailored around the structure of the multiple choice exam, which will be taken by 522,670 pupils this year.
"I was so nervous that I couldn't sleep last night but the praying session made me feel much better," parent Kang Soo-jung told AFP, adding she planned to stay for the entire event.
For the first section -- Korean language -- priests prayed for students to read clearly, and when it moved to maths, parents asked God for their children to perform smooth calculations.
At a church on the outskirts of Seoul, pastor Han Seung-woo was leading a prayer session for hundreds of parents. Many wept as he asked God to bless their test-taking offspring with "wisdom and courage".
"I shared my hopes that, regardless of whether students do well or not on the exam, parents can find reassurance in knowing that God is with them every step of the way," Han told AFP.
'Still our loving children'
Pastor Lee Chan-soo, who has held "Suneung prayer sessions" since 1992, said he tried to use the sessions to prepare parents to face any exam disappointments with equanimity.
At the Bongeunsa Buddhist temple, one of Seoul's largest, head monk Wonmyung was trying to comfort parents, who were performing rituals to help their children.
Some parents bowed 108 times before the altar -- which in Buddhist theology should result in their wishes coming true.
"I know this is one of the most important days in a parent's life," Wonmyung said, adding it was all about "praying so that (the students) have peace and calm in their minds".
For parents who are unable to pray in person, many churches and temples stream the sessions live on YouTube.
Yoido Full Gospel Church, one of the largest churches in South Korea with about 480,000 members, is holding a YouTube live for the entire duration of the exam, featuring gospel songs and the faithful speaking in tongues.
BTN, South Korea's largest Buddhist television channel, broadcast chants that parents can join in from home.
If parents donate, their hopes for their child's exam results and the student's name will scroll across the screen.

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Varieties

Over 60 Endangered Species Released into King Khalid Royal Reserve

These efforts align with the National Environment Strategy and Saudi Vision 2030 - SPA
These efforts align with the National Environment Strategy and Saudi Vision 2030 - SPA
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Over 60 Endangered Species Released into King Khalid Royal Reserve

These efforts align with the National Environment Strategy and Saudi Vision 2030 - SPA
These efforts align with the National Environment Strategy and Saudi Vision 2030 - SPA

In collaboration with the National Center for Wildlife (NCW), the Imam Abdulaziz bin Mohammed Royal Reserve Development Authority has released over 60 endangered species into the King Khalid Royal Reserve. This initiative supports a national program to reintroduce wildlife into their natural habitats.

CEO of the authority Dr. Talal Al-Harigi stated that the release aims to enhance biodiversity and restore natural habitats. He emphasized that the project fosters a stable environment for wildlife adaptation, SPA reported.

These efforts align with the National Environment Strategy and Saudi Vision 2030, which seek to improve the quality of life and promote sustainability. Dr. Al-Harigi noted that the partnership with NCW exemplifies institutional integration and the use of global best practices for successful reintroduction.

The release included species such as Arabian sand gazelles, Arabian oryx, wild hares, and mountain gazelles, contributing to biodiversity, ecological balance, and eco-tourism in the region.

Varieties

'The Best Gift Ever': Baby is Born after the Rarest of Pregnancies, Defying All Odds

This photo provided by the family shows Ryu Lopez in California in October 2025. (Lopez family via AP)
This photo provided by the family shows Ryu Lopez in California in October 2025. (Lopez family via AP)
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'The Best Gift Ever': Baby is Born after the Rarest of Pregnancies, Defying All Odds

This photo provided by the family shows Ryu Lopez in California in October 2025. (Lopez family via AP)
This photo provided by the family shows Ryu Lopez in California in October 2025. (Lopez family via AP)

Suze Lopez holds her baby boy on her lap and marvels at the remarkable way he came into the world.

Before little Ryu was born, he developed outside his mom’s womb, hidden by a basketball-sized ovarian cyst — a dangerous situation so rare that his doctors plan to write about the case for a medical journal, The AP news reported.

Just 1 in 30,000 pregnancies occur in the abdomen instead of the uterus, and those that make it to full term “are essentially unheard of — far, far less than 1 in a million,” said Dr. John Ozimek, medical director of labor and delivery at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, where Ryu was born. “I mean, this is really insane.”

Lopez, a 41-year-old nurse who lives in Bakersfield, California, didn’t know she was pregnant with her second child until days before giving birth.

When her belly began to grow earlier this year, she thought it was her ovarian cyst getting bigger. Doctors had been monitoring the mass since her 20s, leaving it in place after removing her right ovary and another cyst.

Lopez experienced none of the usual pregnancy symptoms, such as morning sickness, and never felt kicks. Though she didn’t have a period, her cycle is irregular and she sometimes goes years without one.

For months, she and her husband, Andrew Lopez, went about their lives and traveled abroad.

But gradually, the pain and pressure in her abdomen got worse, and Lopez figured it was finally time to get the 22-pound (10-kilogram) cyst removed. She needed a CT scan, which required a pregnancy test first because of the radiation exposure. To her great surprise, the test came back positive.

Lopez shared the news with her husband at a Dodgers baseball game in August, handing him a package with a note and a onesie.

“I just saw her face,” he recalled, “and she just looked like she wanted to weep and smile and cry at the same time.”

Shortly after the game, Lopez began feeling unwell and sought help at Cedars-Sinai. It turned out she had dangerously high blood pressure, which the medical team stabilized. They also did blood work and gave her an ultrasound and an MRI. The scans found that her uterus was empty, but a nearly full-term fetus in an amniotic sac was hiding in a small space in her abdomen, near her liver.

“It did not look like it was directly invading any organs,” Ozimek said. “It looked like it was mostly implanted on the sidewall of the pelvis, which is also very dangerous but more manageable than being implanted in the liver.”

Dr. Cara Heuser, a maternal-fetal specialist in Utah not involved with the case, said almost all pregnancies that implant outside the uterus — called ectopic pregnancies — go on to rupture and hemorrhage if not removed. Most commonly, they occur in the fallopian tubes.

A 2023 medical journal article by doctors in Ethiopia described another abdominal pregnancy in which the mother and baby survived, pointing out that fetal mortality can be as high as 90% in such cases and birth defects are seen in about 1 in 5 surviving babies.

But Lopez and her son beat all the odds.

On Aug. 18, a medical team delivered the 8-pound (3.6-kilogram) baby while she was under full anesthesia, removing the cyst during the same surgery. She lost nearly all of her blood, Ozimek said, but the team got the bleeding under control and gave her transfusions.

Doctors continually updated her husband about what was happening.

“The whole time, I might have seemed calm on the outside, but I was doing nothing but praying on the inside,” Andrew Lopez said. “It was just something that scared me half to death, knowing that at any point I could lose my wife or my child.”

Instead, they both recovered well.

“It was really, really remarkable,” Ozimek said.

Since then, Ryu — named after a baseball player and a character in the Street Fighter video game series — has been healthy and thriving. His parents love watching him interact with his 18-year-old sister, Kaila, and say he completes their family.

With Ryu’s first Christmas approaching, Lopez describes feeling blessed beyond measure.

“I do believe in miracles,” she said, looking down at her baby. “God gave us this gift — the best gift ever.”

Varieties

Daughters of King Charles' Brother Andrew Join Royals for Christmas Service

Britain's Princess Beatrice, Princess Eugenie, and Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi leave after attending the Royal Family's Christmas Day service at St. Mary Magdalene's church, as the royals take residence at the Sandringham estate in eastern England, Britain, December 25, 2025. REUTERS/Hannah McKay
Britain's Princess Beatrice, Princess Eugenie, and Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi leave after attending the Royal Family's Christmas Day service at St. Mary Magdalene's church, as the royals take residence at the Sandringham estate in eastern England, Britain, December 25, 2025. REUTERS/Hannah McKay
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Daughters of King Charles' Brother Andrew Join Royals for Christmas Service

Britain's Princess Beatrice, Princess Eugenie, and Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi leave after attending the Royal Family's Christmas Day service at St. Mary Magdalene's church, as the royals take residence at the Sandringham estate in eastern England, Britain, December 25, 2025. REUTERS/Hannah McKay
Britain's Princess Beatrice, Princess Eugenie, and Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi leave after attending the Royal Family's Christmas Day service at St. Mary Magdalene's church, as the royals take residence at the Sandringham estate in eastern England, Britain, December 25, 2025. REUTERS/Hannah McKay

Britain's Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie attended the royal family's traditional Christmas Day church service on Thursday, while their father Andrew, recently stripped ​of his titles over ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, was absent.

King Charles and Queen Camilla led senior royals to a church in Sandringham in eastern England, about 110 miles (175 km) northeast of London, greeting well-wishers in crisp winter weather, Reuters reported.

Charles and Camilla walked ahead while the Prince and Princess of ‌Wales, William ‌and Kate, and their ‌three ⁠children, followed.

Other ​family members ‌included Princess Anne and her husband Tim Laurence, the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh with their children, as well as the king's niece Zara and her husband Mike Tindall.

Now known only as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, the king's younger brother has faced mounting pressure over his ⁠links to Epstein. In October, Charles stripped him of all titles, including ‌Duke of York and prince, and ‍ordered him to vacate ‍his Windsor home and move to private accommodation on ‍the Sandringham estate, which has been the royal family's traditional venue for their Christmas Day service since 1988.

Buckingham Palace had said the steps taken against Andrew were necessary to ​protect the monarchy's reputation, adding that the king's thoughts and sympathies were with victims of ⁠abuse.

The attendance of his daughters Beatrice, 37, and Eugenie, 35, underscores their continuing presence at family events despite the controversy surrounding their father.

The royals ‌are expected to return to Sandringham House for lunch before the king's televised Christmas message later in the day.