September was world’s hottest on record, EU climate change service says
London, UKReuters Last month was the world’s hottest September on record, with unusually high temperatures recorded off Siberia, in the Middle East, and in parts of South America and Australia, the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service said on Wednesday. Extending a long-term warming trend caused by emissions of heat-trapping gases, high temperatures this year […]
Sight-Seeing: Get listening
Writing from the UK, SIMON LENNOX, director of free Bible study app WordGo, writes about the importance of listening – not just talking – during what is a testing time…
After Trump tweets about hymn singers’ arrest, US church plans another event
RNS President Donald Trump tweeted out a warning to his followers Wednesday, claiming religious liberty in the US was in danger. “DEMS WANT TO SHUT YOUR CHURCHES DOWN, PERMANENTLY,” he tweeted in all caps. “HOPE YOU SEE WHAT IS HAPPENING. VOTE NOW!” For proof, the President retweeted a video of an unmasked local politician in Moscow, Idaho, […]
Church leader tests positive for coronavirus in Montenegro
Podgorica, MontenegroAP The head of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro, which led months of protests against the small Balkan state’s pro-Western government, has been hospitalized after testing positive for the coronavirus, the church said Wednesday. It said Bishop Amfilohije, 82, was feeling fine and had no major symptoms. He has been taken to a […]
Coronavirus may push 150 million people into extreme poverty – World Bank
Reuters The World Bank said on Wednesday that the coronavirus pandemic could push as many as 150 million people into extreme poverty by the end of 2021, wiping out more than three years of progress in poverty reduction. Releasing its flagship biennial report on poverty and shared prosperity, the multilateral development lender said that an […]
Lawmakers urged to ban child marriage in Britain
London, UKThomson Reuters Foundation Britain is sabotaging girls’ futures and condoning child sex abuse by failing to scrap an “anachronistic” law allowing child marriage, a lawmaker told parliament on Tuesday as she presented a bill to criminalise marriage under 18. Pauline Latham said retaining the current law, which allows marriage at 16 with parental consent, […]
US election – New liberal projects aim to sour voters of faith on Trump
Washington DC, USAP Three liberal groups are launching new efforts aimed at souring religious voters on President Donald Trump ahead of next month’s election, fresh signs of a growing left-leaning investment in courting that sector even as Trump’s campaign works to consolidate his devout conservative base. The projects include $US625,000 in partnerships formed by leading […]
StrangeSights: Of eyebrows, kissing and worms – the Ig Nobel winners, record-breaking legs, and, the ‘flying table’ is back…
DAVID ADAMS looks at the odder side of life…
Interfaith demonstrations across California demand release of incarcerated people amid COVID-19
Los Angeles, USRNS Faith leaders and activists demonstrated outside prisons and immigration detention centers across California on Tuesday, calling on Governor Gavin Newsom to do more to release incarcerated and detained people who they say are in danger amid COVID-19 outbreaks. Organisers held and placed banners denouncing Newsom at freeway overpasses and outside prisons. Activists […]
Aid groups should face tougher action over sex abuse by staff – experts
London, UKThomson Reuters Foundation Aid organisations and humanitarian agencies should face tougher action including funding cuts if they do not tackle sexual abuse by staff, aid experts told UK parliamentarians on Tuesday amid a sex-for-jobs scandal during an Ebola crisis in the Congo. There is a “culture of impunity” for abusers and organisations believe they […]