Pakistan’s military said Friday it is preparing to defend against any attack by India, and would respond with ’full force’. The comments come a week after a Pakistani-based militant group claimed responsibility for a suicide car attack that killed 40 Indian paramilitary forces in Kashmir. The neighboring countries have warred thrice since 1947 and all ended with defeat or disaster for Pakistan.

A leading cardinal acknowledged the global scale of the child sex abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church on Friday. Indian Cardinal Oswald Gracias, speaking at the summit, said the refusal by some bishops to admit clerical pedophilia was an issue in their countries was unacceptable. The four day summit winds up Sunday with a speech by Pope Francis.

’...To avoid further disruption on set...’ Smollett will not be joining the cast of ’Empire’ to complete production of this season’s final two episodes. Producers confirmed that Smollett receives $100,000/episode, a total of $1.8M/season, but would not confirm whether he would receive payment for the yet shot installments. It has been reported Smollett allegedly staged the attack for a raise.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren said she supports the federal government issuing reparations to black Americans who were economically affected by slavery. Sen. Kamala Harris also said recently she would support some form of reparations. The US federal government has never approved reparations.

Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime plans to retire in April this year. Fils-Aime announced the same via the company’s Twitter profile and said the US branch will be helmed by Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing Doug Bowser. Fils-Aime, who has worked at Nintendo for the last 15 years, helped launch the Nintendo Wii and Nintendo 3DS, as well as the Wii U and Nintendo Switch.

Shares of Kraft Heinz slumped on Thursday after the food company posted a quarterly loss. The company also disclosed an SEC investigation and wrote down the value of its Kraft and Oscar Mayer brands as it highlighted the tough environment for the packaged food industry. A $15.4 billion write-down indicated declining fortunes of the iconic brands and other losses in asset value.

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME Group) has reportedly seen a big spike in bitcoin futures volumes. BTC-based futures volumes touched a new record with 18,338 contracts traded and the firm says increased volumes may be due to gradually rising institutional interest.