Relentless rains submerge Australian towns for second time in a month
Sydney, AustraliaReuters Heavy rains deluged Australia’s east coast on Wednesday, submerging roads and bridges, while tens of thousands fled their homes for the second time within weeks after fast-moving flood waters burst river banks and broke over levees. Several towns in northern New South Wales already reeling after record floods over a month ago were […]
StrangeSights: Annie Rose the therapy dog a ‘bunny’; Respect Your Cat Day; and, 5th graders lifting spirits…
DAVID ADAMS provides a round-up of some stories on the odder side of life…
Long delayed, Deborah Lipstadt nomination for US anti-Semitism envoy passes committee
RNS Following an eight-month-long delay, the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday approved the nomination of noted anti-Semitism scholar Deborah Lipstadt to be the State Department’s envoy to combat and monitor anti-Semitism. The nomination now heads to the full Senate. Deborah E Lipstadt, nominated to be Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism, with […]
Thousands of civilians in Mariupol may have died in past month – UN tells Reuters
Geneva, SwitzerlandReuters Thousands of civilians may have died in the besieged port city of Mariupol in southern Ukraine since bombing began four weeks ago, the head of the UN human rights mission told Reuters on Tuesday, providing its first estimate. Nearly 5,000 people, including about 210 children, have been killed in Mariupol since Russian forces […]
With Ukraine farmers on frontlines, UN food chief warns of “devastation”
United NationsReuters The UN food chief warned on Tuesday that the war in Ukraine was threatening to devastate the World Food Programme’s efforts to feed some 125 million people globally because Ukraine had gone “from the breadbasket of the world to breadlines”. “It’s not just decimating dynamically Ukraine and the region, but it will have […]
Lives in upheaval: War means tough choices in Ukraine’s vast child protection system
SILVIA ALOISI, MARGARYTA CHOMOKONDARTENKO and ZOHRA BENSEMRA, of Reuters, report on how Ukraine’s child protection system is grappling with the consequences of war…
World delegates appear to kick deal to halt nature loss into long grass
Geneva, SwitzerlandReuters Negotiations on an ambitious global biodiversity deal to halt or reverse nature loss closed in Switzerland on Tuesday, with countries agreeing to little more than further talks in June. The Geneva meeting of around 1,000 negotiators from 164 countries was meant to be the last before the postponed UN Convention on Biodiversity meeting […]
Essay: When numbers reflect what we value
PETER KEEGAN, director of advocacy at Baptist World Aid Australia, responds Australia’s federal budget, handed down on Tuesday night…