President Donald Trump from

Associated Press writers Seung Min Kim and Michelle L. Price in Washington contributed reporting.and throbbing percussion can sometimes brighten the mood.

from the American rock band Garbage, “Let All That We Imagine Be the Light.” Due for release Friday, it’s the sound of frontwoman Shirley Manson pushed to the brink by health issues and the fury of our times.The band’s familiar sonic mix provides a pathway out of the darkness, with heavy riffing and dramatic atmospherics accompanying Manson’s alluring alto.“This is a cold cruel world,” she sings on the crunchy “Love to Give.” “You’ve gotta find the love where you can get it.”

The album is Garbage’s eighth and the first since 2021’s “No Gods No Masters.” The genesis came last August, when Manson aggravated an old hip injury, abruptly ending the band’s world tour.The other members of the group – Butch Vig, Duke Erikson and Steve Marker – retreated to the studio and began work on new music. Manson added lyrics that lament fatalism, ageism and sexism, acknowledge vulnerability and mortality, and seek to embrace joy, love and empowerment.

That’s a lot, which may be why there’s a song titled “Sisyphus.” The sonics are formidable, too. A mix that echoes

helps to leaven the occasional overripe lyric, such as, “There is no future that can’t be designed/With imagination and a beautiful mind,” in the title track.The three possible papal candidates from Africa — Sarah, Ambongo, and Turkson — are seen as holding orthodox views on some of the hot-button issues that the Catholic Church is grappling with, reflecting wider social conservatism on the continent of 1.3 billion people. Catholic orthodoxy in Africa was at odds with Pope Francis’ pastoral vision of mercy and understanding for all marginalized groups, including LGBTQ+ Catholics.

The real-life situation was reflected in the fictionalin which one of the four contenders vying for the papacy was a socially conservative cardinal from Nigeria.

Congo has the highest number of baptized Catholics in Africa.Ambongo — the archbishop of Congolese capital, Kinshasa, since 2018 — last year signed a