Pandemic likely made 2020 “another devastating year” for world’s forests
Kuala Lumpur, MalaysiaThomson Reuters Foundation The rate of destruction of the world’s tropical forests is likely to have gathered pace last year, green groups warned, as the pandemic weakened environmental regulations, cut funding for protection work and forced city migrants back to rural areas. In 2019, tropical rainforests disappeared at a rate of one football pitch […]
Myanmar envoy appeals to UN to stop coup as police break up protests
Reuters Myanmar’s UN envoy urged the United Nations to use “any means necessary” to stop a military coup there, making a surprise appeal on behalf of the ousted government as police cracked down on anti-junta protesters. The South-East Asian country has been in crisis since the army seized power on 1st February and detained elected […]
Texas church helps mosque damaged after snowstorm
RNS A suburban Texas church is helping a nearby mosque recover from the devastating snowstorms that hit last week. First United Methodist Church of Denton, north of Dallas-Fort Worth, has started a GoFundMe campaign to help the Islamic Society of Denton pay for repairs needed in the wake of the disaster. The Islamic Society of […]
Snapshot: Tasajera, Aragua, Venezuela
See JORGE SALVADOR’s image…
Facebook switches news back on in Australia, signs content deals
Sydney, AustraliaReuters Facebook Inc ended a one-week blackout of Australian news on its popular social media site on Friday and announced preliminary commercial agreements with three small local publishers. The moves reflected easing tensions between the US company and the Australian Government, a day after the country’s parliament passed a law forcing it and Alphabet […]
Man who played Duke Chapel bells at US university for 50 years dies
Durham, North Carolina, USAP When J Samuel Hammond arrived as a freshman at Duke University in 1964, he knew nothing about the musical instrument that allowed a player to send melodies ringing across campus from the bells in the school’s iconic chapel tower. A demonstration from a fellow student introduced him to the 50-bell carillon […]
Religious leaders can play a key role during coronavirus vaccine roll-out, says WCC head
Religious leaders can play a critical role in sustaining public trust in the coronavirus vaccine roll-out, the acting general secretary of the World Council of Churches said this week. Rev Prof Dr Ioan Sauca, who himself has already received a COVID-19 vaccine in Switzerland, said in a statement that “[r]eligious leaders of all faiths play […]
Iraqi priest hopes Pope’s visit can mend “broken trust” between Christians and Muslims
Vatican CityRNS In Iraq, the birthplace of Abraham, the patriarch of three major faiths, religion has rarely so divided the country, and Christians, descendants of one of their faith’s oldest communities, feel more threatened than they have in living memory. Rev Karam Qasha, a parish priest of the Chaldean Catholic Church of St George in […]
Racial justice: Why a Catholic journalist is urging the church to engage Black Lives Matter
ALEJANDRA MOLINA, of Religion News Service, reports on Catholic journalist Olga Marina Segura’s call – contained in her new book – for greater engagement of the US Catholic Church with the Black Lives Matter movement…
At least 160 Confederate symbols taken down in US in 2020 – SPLC
New York City, USAP When rioters tore through the US Capitol last month, some of them gripping Confederate battle flags, they didn’t encounter a statue of the most famous rebel general, Robert E Lee. The Lee statue, which represented the state of Virginia as part of the National Statuary Hall Collection in the Capitol for […]