“Parting is such sweet sorrow”: EU and UK clinch narrow Brexit accord
London, UK/Brussels, BelgiumReuters Britain clinched a narrow Brexit trade deal with the European Union on Thursday, just seven days before it exits one of the world’s biggest trading blocs in its most significant global shift since the loss of empire. The deal, agreed more than four years after Britain voted by a slim margin to […]
Updated: Coronavirus dampens Christmas joy in Bethlehem and elsewhere
Updated: 4.20pm (AEDT)Bethlehem, West Bank AP Bethlehem on Thursday ushered in Christmas Eve with a stream of joyous marching bands and the triumphant arrival of the top Catholic clergyman in the Holy Land, but few people were there to greet them as the coronavirus pandemic and a strict lockdown dampened celebrations in the traditional birthplace […]
One million Americans vaccinated for COVID; Tennessee new epicentre
New York, USReuters Tennessee emerged alongside California on Wednesday as an epicentre of the latest COVID-19 surge even while more than one million Americans have been vaccinated as US political leaders sought to guard against a highly contagious coronavirus variant sweeping across Britain. Tennessee averaged nearly 128 new infections per 100,000 people over the last […]
Price of marriage pushes land out of reach in Sri Lanka
Sainthamaruthu, Sri LankaThomson Reuters Foundation It was another day of agony for Rizeena, as she waited with her family at their home in eastern Sri Lanka to meet yet another potential husband for her sister – the 46th time they have tried to find someone to marry her in the past decade. Most of these […]
Have a blessed Christmas!
Christmas greetings from Sight…
On the cusp of Brexit trade deal, EU and UK hash out final details
Brussels, Belgium/London, UKReuters Britain and the European Union were on the cusp of striking a narrow trade deal on Thursday, swerving away from a chaotic finale to the Brexit split that has dealt a blow to the 70-year attempt to forge European unity from the ruins of World War II. While a last-minute deal would […]
Updated: Trump pardons former campaign chairman Manafort, associate Roger Stone
12:35pm (AEDT)Palm Beach, FloridaReuters US President Donald Trump on Wednesday granted full pardons to former campaign manager Paul Manafort and former adviser Roger Stone, sweeping away the most important convictions made under the long-running Russia election probe. Trump also issued a full pardon for Charles Kushner, a real estate developer and the father of Trump’s […]
“Heavy and hopeful”: For hospital chaplains, being vaccinated first brings a mix of emotions
JACK JENKINS, of Religion News Service, reports on the complicated emotions hospita chaplains in the US are experiencing as they receive COVID-19 vaccines…
Production and delivery challenges set up turbulent Year of the Vaccine
Zurich, SwitzerlandReuters As 2020 closes, regulatory approval of COVID-19 vaccines has raised hopes the world can defeat the pandemic next year. But production and delivery challenges suggest beating the disease will be a marathon whose finish line is still far away. Europe on Monday followed Britain and the United States in giving a green light […]
Essay: A Christmas without family and community
US Catholic commentator THOMAS REESE, in an article first published on Religion News Service, reflects on what will be, for many, a Christmas “like no other in recent memory”…