Canada Day muted as country reckons with treatment of Indigenous, other minorities; forest fire guts town as heatwave continues
Ottawa, CanadaReuters Multiple cities scrapped Canada Day celebrations on Thursday after the discovery of hundreds of remains of children at former Indigenous schools sparked a reckoning with the country’s colonial past. Calls to scale back or cancel celebrations snowballed after, beginning in May, almost 1,000 unmarked graves were found at former so-called residential schools in […]
Pope: Lebanon must remain a “land of tolerance, pluralism”
Rome, ItalyAP Pope Francis insisted Thursday that Lebanon must remain a “land of tolerance and pluralism” as he welcomed the country’s Christian patriarchs to the Vatican to pray for an end to the economic and political crisis that has thrown the country into chaos and threatened its Christian community. Francis presided over an evening prayer […]
Tributes flow after the death of UK Christian leader Joel Edwards
Tributes have flowed following the death of prominent UK Christian leader Rev Dr Joel Edwards, who passed away at the age of 70 from cancer. Edward’s family posted a letter he had written on social media in which he thanked people for their “prayers, love and holding on to me with that fingernail miracle”. “Words […]
Turkey formally quits treaty to prevent violence against women
Ankara, TurkeyReuters Turkey officially withdrew on Thursday from an international treaty to prevent violence against women, enacting a decision that drew condemnation from many Turks and Western allies when President Tayyip Erdogan announced it in March. Thousands were set to protest across Turkey, where a court appeal to halt the withdrawal was rejected this week. […]
Origins: The first mobile phone call was 75 years ago – what it takes for technologies to go from breakthrough to big time
Professor of electrical engineering DANIEL BLISS, in an article first published on The Conversation, looks at where the first mobile phone services began – and how they’ve evolved since…
Xi warns against foreign bullying as China marks party centenary
Beijing, ChinaReuters China’s President Xi Jinping on Thursday warned that foreign forces attemping to bully the nation will “get their heads bashed”, and hailed a “new world” created by its people as the ruling Communist Party marked the centenary of its founding. In an hour-long address from Tiananmen Square, Xi pledged to build up China’s […]
In the US, “denomination matters” in Black-focused faith-based health programs, scholars say
RNS The health of Black churchgoers can differ depending on the denomination and the gender of the people in the pews, Duke University researchers have found, and scholars are urging more nuanced examination of the data to help address medical issues such as hypertension, obesity and depression. A five-year project of the university’s Samuel DuBois […]
COVID-19 cases worsen in Latin America, no end in sight – health agency
Brasilia, BrazilReuters Cases of COVID-19 may be declining in North America but in most of Latin America and the Caribbean the end to the coronavirus pandemic “remains a distant future”, the Pan American Health Organization said on Wednesday. While infections in the United States, Canada and Mexico are falling, in Latin America and the Caribbean […]
UK Methodist Church votes to allow same-sex marriages
London, UKAP Britain’s Methodist Church announced Wednesday that same-sex couples will be allowed to get married on its premises. After debates on the topic at the Methodist Conference, the proposals to allow same-sex marriages were passed with 254 votes in favour and 46 against. The Methodist Church said ministers who oppose the changes will not […]
Rebooting economies: Harder to attract staff than visitors at Italy’s tourist hotspots
ANGELO AMANTE, writing for Reuters, reports on the difficulties facing the hospitality industry in Italy as the country looks to a post-COVID future…