StrangeSights: ‘Kyiv Calling’; a cake cathedral; and hair portraits…
DAVID ADAMS provides a round-up of some stories on the odder side of life…
Europe struggles to meet mounting needs of Ukraine’s fleeing millions
Warsaw, Poland/Bucharest, RomaniaReuters More than 3.5 million people have fled abroad from the war in Ukraine, United Nations data showed on Tuesday, leaving Eastern Europe scrambling to provide them with care, schools and jobs even as daily numbers crossing borders ease. The millions who have left Ukraine since Russia’s invasion began have made their way […]
More US congregations are reopening but attendance remains flat – study
RNS Across the US, religious congregations have reopened, or reopened with some health restrictions still in place, after two long pandemic years, according to a new Pew Research survey. But there has been little or no rise in the number of people attending in-person religious services over the past six months, while the number of […]
“My flesh was burning”: Uganda accused of torture again
Kampala, Uganda Reuters Ronald Ssegawa said Ugandan security agents pulled him off the streets in January last year, burned him and pulled out his fingernails. His crime: supporting the opposition. The 22-year-old is one of hundreds of government critics and opposition supporters detained and tortured in the last three years, especially around the 2021 presidential […]
Dutch publisher recalls discredited book on Anne Frank’s betrayal
Amsterdam, The Netherlands Reuters The Dutch publisher of a discredited cold case investigation into the betrayal of teenage Jewish diarist Anne Frank on Tuesday said it was recalling the book following a critical report on its findings. The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation, by Canadian best-selling author Rosemary Sullivan has been widely […]
Russian talking point: Blaming US for Ukraine church split
PETER SMITH, of Associated Press, reports on the role religion – in particular the schism within Eastern Orthodoxy – is playing in the conflict in Ukraine…
British royals’ Jamaica visit stirs demands for slavery reparations
Kingston, JamaicaReuters Britain’s Prince William and his wife Kate arrived in Jamaica on Tuesday as part of a week-long Caribbean tour, hours after activists protested to demand reparations for slavery amid growing scrutiny of the British Empire’s colonial legacy. Protesters gather outside an office of the British government to demand that the United Kingdom pay […]
Essay: Whose vote counts? Whose doesn’t?
In an article first published on Religion News Service, BRIDGET MOIX, general secretary of the Friends Committee on National Legislation in the US, says the push for voting rights is a moral imperative and requires the urgent passage of nationwide voting rights legislation…