This Life: Developing bold hope during trying times
US columnist CAROL ROUND, in an article published on ASSIST News Service, writes about the “season of hope”…
Russian coronavirus-denying monk given prison sentence
Moscow, Russia AP A rebel Russian monk who castigated the Kremlin and denied that the coronavirus existed was convicted Tuesday on accusations of encouraging suicides and given a three-and-a-half-year prison sentence. The monk, Father Sergiy, was arrested in December, 2020, on charges of inciting suicidal actions through sermons in which he urged believers to “die […]
Australian youth most concerned about COVID-19, the environment, and equity and discrimination – survey
Sydney, Australia Australian youth are most concerned about COVID-19, the environment, and equity and discrimination, the annual Mission Australia Youth Survey for 2021 shows. Young people aged 15 to 19 are also personally concerned about coping with stress, mental health, and school or study problems, followed by body image and COVID-19, the report, released on […]
Barbados ditches Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II to become a republic
Bridgetown, Barbados Reuters Barbados ditched Britain’s Queen Elizabeth as head of state, forging a new republic on Tuesday with its first-ever President and severing its last remaining colonial bonds nearly 400 years after the first English ships arrived at the Caribbean island. At the strike of midnight, the new republic was born to cheers of […]
The race is on to trace the new COVID-19 variant
London, UK/Brussels, Belgium/Singapore Reuters Governments around the world are urgently scouring databases for recent cases of COVID-19 infections, screening travellers and decoding the viral genomes of the new variant as they try to measure how far it has spread. The pace of the work highlights the pressure on governments and public health authorities to decide […]
Sexual harassment rife inside Australian parliament, report finds
Canberra, AustraliaReuters One in three people working in Australia’s parliament have experienced sexual harassment, a report published on Tuesday said, following an independent inquiry into parliamentary workplace culture. Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who ordered the review in February after his party came under pressure over its handling of an alleged rape inside the building, said […]
Explainer: What is behind unrest in the Solomon Islands?
Sydney, AustraliaReuters Four people were killed during violent anti-government protests in the Solomon Islands that prompted Australia to send police and soldiers to help keep order. In three days of unrest last week, buildings were set ablaze and shops looted by protesters angered by problems such as high unemployment and crowded housing, witnesses said. A […]
In a podcast, two US Jesuit priests document their ministry along the US-Mexico border
RNS In the years working toward their priestly formation, Revs Brian Strassburger and Louie Hotop became accustomed to difficult assignments. Hotop taught English in a single-room schoolhouse in Siberia and ministered to the unhoused in San Francisco, while Strassburger ministered to youth in rural Nicaragua and served as a chaplain in Boston. Now, after Strassburger […]
Global coalition seizes 145.3 tonnes of cocaine – Colombia’s navy
Bogota, ColombiaReuters Military and police authorities from more than 40 countries across Europe and the Americas confiscated 145.3 tonnes of cocaine in the eighth phase of Operation Orion, a multi-national naval operation against drug trafficking, Colombia’s navy said on Monday. The figure represents the highest amount of cocaine seized during the operation so far. Cocaine […]
China’s Xi pledges another billion COVID-19 vaccine doses for Africa
Dakar, Senegal/Beijing, ChinaReuters China will deliver another billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines to Africa and encourage Chinese companies to invest no less than $US10 billion in the continent over the next three years, President Xi Jinping said on Monday. The country has already supplied nearly 200 million doses to Africa, where vaccination rates have fallen […]