Amazon fires surge anew in Brazil as cleared forest burns
Labrea/Brasilia, BrazilReuters Thick smoke billowed above Brazil’s Amazon jungle as fire tore through butchered rainforest and discarded trees littered the scorched earth like dead matchsticks, burnt and black. A Reuters witness saw vast burned and clear cut areas on Wednesday and Thursday, as the arc of deforestation advanced deeper into the jungle by the frontier […]
New York’s 9/11 Museum CEO seeks to educate, inspire younger generation
Reuters One of the most important tasks Alice Greenwald has as president and CEO of the 9/11 Memorial and Museum is to educate and inspire a younger generation and make sure the heroism and sacrifices made that day in 2001 are never forgotten. “If you think about 20 years, it is the span of a […]
Some faith groups laud Texas abortion ban, others cite religious freedom concerns
RNS Religious groups and faith leaders are speaking out about a new Texas law that severely restricts abortions, with some celebrating its passage and others arguing it violates their religious freedom to counsel and aid those who wish to have the procedure. The US Supreme Court declined to block legislation known as the Heartbeat Act […]
Jesse Jackson’s wife headed home from hospital after COVID
Chicago, USAP Rev Jesse Jackson’s wife will be released from a Chicago hospital where she has been treated for COVID-19, her family said in a statement on Friday. A statement from Jonathan Jackson, one of the couple’s five children, did not specify when his 77-year-old mother, Jacqueline, would be released from Northwestern Memorial Hospital. In […]
Doctor’s orders: ‘Nature prescriptions’ see rise amid pandemic
CAREY L BIRON, of Thomson Reuters Foundation, writes that with the coronavirus pandemic highlighting the health benefits of spending more time outdoors, a growing faction of the US medical community is prescribing time outside the same way they would traditional medication…
Ex-Cardinal McCarrick, 91, pleads not guilty in sex assault
Dedham, Massachusetts, USAP Former Roman Catholic Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the once-powerful American prelate who was expelled from the priesthood for sexual abuse, pleaded not guilty Friday to sexually assaulting a 16-year-old boy during a wedding reception in Massachusetts nearly 50 years ago. McCarrick, 91, wore a mask and entered suburban Boston’s Dedham District Court hunched […]
Air quality improved slightly in 2020 during lockdowns, UN agency says
Geneva, SwitzerlandReuters Key air pollutants temporarily plunged by unprecedented levels during coronavirus lockdowns last year, with fine particle pollution falling by more than a third across parts of Asia, a UN agency said on Friday. Particulate matter (PM 2.5) fell by up to 40 per cent across Africa, South America and Southern Asia and by […]
Hunted by the men they jailed, Afghanistan’s women judges seek escape
The Hague, The NetherlandsReuters Afghanistan’s 250 women judges fear for their lives, with men they once jailed now freed by the victorious Taliban to hunt them down. While some women judges were able to flee in recent weeks, most were left behind and are still trying to get out, said judges and activists working around […]