SIGHT-SEEING: WHAT DOES JOY LOOK LIKE THIS CHRISTMAS?
AMANDA JACKSON looks at what’s making her joyful this Christmas despite the “strange and troubling times”…
In Christmas message, Pope Francis calls on Vatican officials to embrace change
Vatican CityRNS As the decade comes to an end, Pope Francis focused on change – of all sorts – during his 21st December Christmas speech to the cardinals and heads of the Vatican departments that make up the Roman Curia. “Christian life is a journey, a pilgrimage. The history of the Bible is a journey, marked by […]
US religious freedom agency reauthorised with Trump’s signature
Washington DC, USRNS The independent religious freedom watchdog whose future was in question in recent months has been reauthorized as part of an ominbus bill US President Donald Trump signed Friday. The US Commission on International Religious Freedom received funding of $US3.5 million annually for the next three years after members of Congress included revised […]
South Africa’s ‘Boris the BabyBot’ opens children’s eyes to digital privacy
Johannesburg, South AfricaThomson Reuters Foundation When Boris the BabyBot, a red robot with long wiggly arms who tracks and profiles babies for The Factory, meets a baby who’s too messy to be tracked, the book’s young readers join the droid in exploring questions about data privacy. Boris beeps as he scans babies’ smiles and fingerprints and […]
Hundreds arrested in India during days of protests over citizenship law
New Delhi/Mumbai, IndiaReuters More than 1,500 protesters have been arrested across India in the past 10 days, officials said, as police try to quell sometimes violent demonstrations against a citizenship law that critics say undermines the country’s secular constitution. Additionally, some 4,000 people have been detained and then released, the officials said. Demonstrators shout slogans […]
STELLAR VIEW?: SPACE HOTELS RACE TO OFFER TOURISTS A ROOM IN THE SKY
UMBERTO BACCHI, of Thomson Reuters Foundation, reports…