This Life: Let Jesus write your ‘to-do’ list
US columnist CAROL ROUND, in an article first published on ASSIST News Service, looks at what our ‘to-do’ list should look like at this time of year…
COVID-19 will likely widen yawning migrant pay gap – UN
London, UKThomson Reuters Foundation Migrants earn up to 42 per cent less than national workers in high-income countries, with the COVID-19 pandemic likely to exacerbate the pay gap and women worse affected than men, UN labour experts said on Monday. The pay discrepancy has widened markedly in many countries in the last five years, notably […]
US evangelical leader Beth Moore trends on Twitter after calling Trumpism “seductive and dangerous”
RNS As supporters of US President Donald Trump’s allegations of voter fraud have persisted in questioning the results of the election five weeks since it was called for Joe Biden, some evangelical leaders have had enough. Karen Swallow Prior, an evangelical author and professor, tweeted on Friday that she was ashamed to have voted for local and […]
South Korea passes law to ban anti-North Korea leaflets amid activists’ outcry
Seoul, South KoreaReuters South Korea’s parliament passed a bill on Monday to ban the launching of propaganda leaflets into North Korea, a move that was condemned by rights activists as a violation of freedom of speech. Groups run by North Korean defectors and other campaigners have for decades sent anti-Pyongyang leaflets – alongside food, medicine, […]
Deaths of homeless hit new record in England and Wales
London, UKThomson Reuters Foundation An estimated 778 homeless people died in England and Wales last year, according to official data released on Monday, the highest number since records began. The toll has risen for five consecutive years and is more than 60 per cent higher than in 2013 when the first comparable data was collated. […]
New Zealand agrees on two-way ‘travel bubble’ with Australia early 2021
Wellington, New ZealandReuters New Zealand on Monday agreed to allow quarantine-free travel with Australia in the first quarter of 2021, nearly a year after it locked down its borders to protect its population from the global coronavirus pandemic. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the cabinet had agreed in principle for the trans-Tasman, quarantine free travel […]
Charity uses mobile phone data to identify aid recipients in Togo
London, UKThomson Reuters Foundation A US-based non-profit that is using algorithms to identify people living in extreme poverty by analysing their mobile phone habits has made direct cash payments to 30,000 people as part of a pioneering project in Togo. GiveDirectly worked with the government of the West African nation and experts at the University […]
COVID-19 leaves sporting holes that will never be filled
Reuters There are still hopes for a Tokyo Olympics, Formula One crowned a 2020 champion and the Los Angeles Lakers celebrated an NBA title inside a quarantined bubble. They handed out a Green Jacket at the Masters and hoisted a Stanley Cup. But there will forever remain blank spaces on the wall of the All-England […]
In the US, vandals hit Black churches during weekend pro-Trump rallies
Washington DC, USAP Vandals tore down a Black Lives Matter banner and sign from two historic Black churches in downtown Washington and set the banner ablaze as night-time clashes Saturday between pro-Donald Trump supporters and counterdemonstrators erupted into violence and arrests. Police on Sunday said they were investigating the incidents at the Asbury United Methodist […]
Silent nights: Germany tightens virus lockdown over holidays
Berlin, GermanyAP Most stores shut, tight limits on social contacts, no singing in church and a ban on fireworks sales: Germany is ratcheting up its pandemic restrictions in an effort to cut the stubbornly high rate of coronavirus infections. Chancellor Angela Merkel said she and the governors of Germany’s 16 states agreed Sunday to step […]