This Life: Is your treasure in Heaven?
US columnist CAROL ROUND, in an article first published on ASSIST News Service, reflects at how Christians are called to set our minds “on things above”…
Fearing loan sharks and slavery, Indian workers ask government for cash aid
Chennai, IndiaThomson Reuters Foundation Informal workers in India urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a petition on Tuesday to grant emergency financial aid to protect them from loan sharks and labour traffickers as the pandemic erodes their incomes. India is one of the countries worst affected by coronavirus, and a strict lockdown earlier this year […]
Church of England failed to tackle child sex abuse – report
London, UKAP The Church of England failed to protect children and young people from sexual predators for decades, preferring instead to safeguard its own reputation, and created a culture where abusers were able to hide, an independent report said Tuesday. The report, published by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, also found examples of […]
COVID aid could bring years of austerity, charities warn IMF
London, UKReuters Five hundred of the world’s leading charities and social groups have sent a letter to the International Monetary Fund warning that its support programs, which have had to be ramped up to cope with COVID-19, were condemning many countries to years of austerity. The concern raised before the IMF and World Bank annual […]
COVID-19 vaccine may be ready by year-end, says WHO’s Tedros
Geneva, SwitzerlandReuters A vaccine against COVID-19 may be ready by year-end, the head of the World Health Organization said on Tuesday. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called for solidarity and political commitment by all leaders to ensure equal distribution of vaccines when they become available. “We will need vaccines and there is hope that by […]
Tasmanian Devils set paw on mainland Australia after 3,000 years
Sydney, AustraliaReuters The world’s largest surviving marsupial carnivore, the Tasmanian Devil, has been returned to the wild on Australia’s mainland for the first time in 3,000 years. Actor couple Chris Hemsworth and Elsa Pataky joined conservation groups last month to release 11 of the animals into a wildlife sanctuary in New South Wales, with more […]
Books: Children’s classic speaks to these uncertain times
JO KADLECEK rereads ‘Bridge to Terabithia’…
As cities bake on a warming planet, insurers cook up heatwave cover
London, UKThomson Reuters Foundation As health workers carried out COVID-19 tests in public squares in Washington DC in July, work had to be suspended as temperatures in the paved spaces soared to what felt like 43 degrees Celsius. The heat-wilted US city of Phoenix, meanwhile, has already seen planes delayed from taking off when airport […]
Hundreds of thousands of people shackled for mental health issues globally, Human Rights Watch says
Abuja, NigeriaReuters Hundreds of thousands of men, women and children with mental health conditions are living chained up in roughly 60 countries, Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday. Without mental health support or awareness, families or institutions often shackle people against their will, leaving them eating, sleeping, urinating and defecating in one small space, the […]
Political ‘retreat’ on climate action harms all nations, says UN climate chief
London, UKThomson Reuters Foundation Rich nations are failing on promises to help poorer ones meet the goals of the Paris Agreement on climate change, even though such help would be “not charity but a global act of self-interest”, UN climate chief Patricia Espinosa said on Monday. In an unusually pointed speech, she decried the erosion […]