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Gathered around the Holy Father Francis, we the Synod Fathers, along with the fraternal Delegates and Auditors participating in the 14th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, turn our thoughts to all the families of the Middle East.

For years now, due to bloody conflicts, they have been victims of unspeakable atrocities. Their conditions of life have been further aggravated in recent months and weeks.

The use of weapons of mass destruction, indiscriminate killings, beheadings, kidnapping of human beings, trafficking in women, the enrolment of children into militias, persecution on the basis of religious belief or ethnicity, the destruction of cultural heritage and countless other atrocities have forced thousands of families to flee their homes in search of refuge elsewhere, often in conditions of extreme precariousness. Currently they are prevented from returning and from exercising the right to live in dignity and safety on their own soil, contributing to the reconstruction and the material and spiritual well-being of their respective countries.

Natalie Walters

McDonald's Hamburger University is no joke.

With a selection rate of 1% at its Shanghai campus, the intense, week-long training program is more exclusive than Harvard, reports Bloomberg.

Students at the American campus can earn up to 23 credits toward their Hamburgerology degree, according to CNN, or toward an associate's or bachelor's degree at 1,600 US colleges and universities, the American Council on Education reports. 

The program currently has seven campuses worldwide in Oak Brook, Illinois, Tokyo, London, Sydney, Munich, São Paulo, and Shanghai, with an eighth campus opening scheduled for Moscow later this year. 

Founded in 1961, Hamburger University now has more than 275,000 graduates and will celebrate its 55th anniversary next year. Here's a look at how it started and how it's evolved.

Vivian Giang contributed to a previous version of this article.