South Africans fear safety divide as coronavirus panic takes hold in cities
Johannesburg, South AfricaThomson Reuters Foundation As South Africa prepares to go into a 21-day national lockdown to stem the coronavirus outbreak, poorer residents fear being exposed to worsening violence and scams as security companies jack up patrols in wealthier neighbourhoods. A spike in coronavirus scams like fake door-to-door tests to break into people’s homes could […]
Clergy laugh off bloopers as the coronavirus forces churches online
RNS Rev Megan Castellan has been livestreaming morning prayer from home every day through the coronavirus pandemic for her parishioners at St John’s Episcopal Church in Ithaca, New York. But Thursday’s prayer was an “epic disaster,” Castellan told her followers on Twitter. Both the rector’s dog and cat decided to participate in the Facebook Live video, hovering […]
British PM Johnson has coronavirus, self-isolates in Downing Street
London, UKReuters British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has tested positive for coronavirus and is self-isolating at his Downing Street residence but said he would still lead the government’s response to the accelerating outbreak. Johnson, 55, experienced mild symptoms on Thursday, a day after he answered questions at the prime minister’s weekly question-and-answer session in parliament’s […]
CORONAVIRUS AND THE CHURCH: AS PARISHIONERS REMAIN HOUSEBOUND, AMERICAN CHRISTIAN CLERGY DEBATE ONLINE COMMUNION
JACK JENKINS, writing for Religion News Service, reports…
Netherlands suspects trafficking of Vietnamese minors through asylum centres
Amsterdam, The NetherlandsThomson Reuters Foundation Almost all the Vietnamese children who arrived in Dutch asylum centres in recent years disappeared and were probably trafficked, the Dutch Government advisor on human trafficking has said. Eighty unaccompanied minors from Vietnam went missing from government asylum centres in the Netherlands between 2015 and 2019, according to an investigation […]
Coronavirus cases top half a million, protective gear lacking – WHO
Geneva, Switzerland/London, UKReuters Coronavirus has infected more than half a million people and killed more than 20,000 globally, the head of the World Health Organization said on Friday, as he appealed again for protective gear for medical staff working to save lives. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general, urged countries to refrain from using medicines that […]