Fossil fuel subsidies are wrecking the world, says UN chief
Barcelona, SpainThomson Reuters Foundation Subsidies that promote the use of fossil fuels are helping “to destroy the world”, and are a bad way to deploy taxpayers’ money, the head of the United Nations said on Tuesday. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told a gathering of politicians and business people in Austria that pollution should be taxed, […]
Two killed, 15 schoolgirls injured in Japan stabbing – NHK
Updated: 8am, 29th May, 2019Tokyo, JapanReuters A knife-wielding man slashed at a group of schoolgirls at a bus stop in Japan on Tuesday, killing one girl and an adult who may have been the father of one child, media reported. Sixteen other girls between the ages of six and 12 and a woman were wounded […]
BOOKS: SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON THE CREATIVITY OF CHRISTIAN ENTREPRENEURS
DARREN CRONSHAW reads a book celebrating Christian entrepreneurship…
Veteran cleric and Hong Kong democrat keeps up quest for “historical truth” of Tiananmen
ReutersHong Kong Veteran Hong Kong democracy campaigner and Baptist cleric Chu Yiu-ming was in his mid-40s when he joined demonstrators around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989, just before a bloody crackdown that roiled China. Thirty years later, the political landscape appears even bleaker to Chu, who helped smuggle out dissidents after the bloodshed, and helped […]
Warnings over new law to protect workers in Thai fishing industry
Phnom Penh, CambodiaThomson Reuters Foundation A new law to address abuses in Thailand’s multi-billion dollar fishing industry contains loopholes, labour rights campaigners have said, warning of difficulties in enforcement. The legislation published last Wednesday follows years of global scrutiny over abuse of Thai and migrant workers and mandates basic rights such as social security, medical […]
Four killed in another attack on a church in Burkina Faso – reports
Four people were killed in another attack on a church in northern Burkina Faso, Agenzia Fides reports. The attack on a Catholic church in the village of Toulfé – located about 20 kilometres from Titao, capital of Loroum province, occurred when eight armed attackers entered the church where the congregation had gathered to celebrate Mass on […]
FREEDOM AND A GOOD COACH
I’ve been arguing in a few of these spots that freedom, rather than being saying and doing whatever you want, is following or obeying the coach. PICTURE: Gift Habeshaw/Unsplash You only have to think of a football team to work this out. If the team doesn’t listen to the coach, no premiership! But you must have to […]
HUMAN TRAFFICKING: NO SIRENS, NO DRAMA – UK GOES SOFTLY, SOFTLY TO CLOSE THE NET
KIERAN GUILBERT reports from the UK on efforts to apprehend human traffickers…
World Council of Churches invites member churches to commemorate 400th anniversary of the start of the Atlantic slave trade
The World Council of Churches’ executive committee has invited member churches to find opportunities to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the start of the transatlantic slave trade, to ask God’s forgiveness for ancestors who were involved in the enslavement of African people and to recommit to the “struggle against racism and for racial and economic […]
ESSAY: JEAN VANIER, A “GOOD BLOKE” WHO LIVED IN COVENANT WITH THE “VULNERABLE, HUMILIATED, AND OPPRESSED”
Jean Vanier, founder of L’Arche and Faith and Light – global organisations dedicated to providing a sense of community for people with intellectual disabilities, died on 7th May at the age of 90. Australian EILEEN GLASS, a former vice-international leader with L’Arche, writes about Vanier’s impact locally…