Fasting protesters defy military rule in massive Sudan marches
Khartoum, Sudan Reuters Despite high temperatures, tear gas, and a Ramadan fast, tens of thousands of Sudanese protesters marched in the capital Khartoum and more in towns across the country on Wednesday, marking the third anniversary of the fall of former President Omar al-Bashir and rejecting the recent power grab by the generals that ousted […]
Pope Francis kisses Ukrainian flag from “martyred” Bucha
Vatican CityAP Pope Francis on Wednesday kissed a battered Ukrainian flag that he said was brought to him from the “martyred” Ukrainian city of Bucha as he denounced the “massacre” there and called again for an end to the war. Francis held the flag as he welcomed a half-dozen Ukrainian refugee children up to the stage of the […]
Russia bombards and US imposes sanctions as Ukraine urges decisive help
Lviv, Ukraine/Dublin, IrelandReuters Russian forces bombarded cities in Ukraine as the United States imposed more sanctions on Wednesday after civilian killings widely condemned as war crimes and Ukraine’s President urged a decisive Western response amid divisions in Europe. Russia’s 42-day-long invasion has forced more than four million people to flee abroad, killed or injured thousands, […]
Shanghai scrambles to secure food supplies as COVID lockdown hits
Shanghai, ChinaReuters Residents in the major Chinese financial centre of Shanghai, with 26 million under lockdown, scrambled to secure food on Wednesday, with supermarkets shut and deliveries restricted amid another citywide COVID-19 testing program. The government of the city, which is in the grips of its biggest-ever COVID-19 outbreak, said on Wednesday it would not […]
Books: A church which sits where theology and migration meet
DAVID ADAMS reads a book about a rather unusual church at the US-Mexico border…
El Salvador making it harder for murderous gangs to spread messages
San Salvador, El Salvador Reuters Waging a campaign against gangs responsible for El Salvador having one of the world’s highest murder rates, Congress in the Central American republic passed a bill on Tuesday criminalising the publication of gang messages, including by news outlets. Last month, President Nayib Bukele invoked emergency powers to suspend some constitutional […]
StrangeSights: World Rat Day; the “Dummy Downhill”; and, rickrolled with a QR code…
DAVID ADAMS provides a round-up of some stories on the odder side of life…
Press violence in Mexico skyrockets under current administration – report
Mexico City Reuters Violence against the press in Mexico rose to unprecedented levels in the first half of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s administration, up 85 per cent from the first half of his predecessor’s term, according to a report published on Tuesday. The report comes as Mexico faces a streak of journalist killings that […]
Trial testimony: Vatican wanted to pay off London broker
Vatican CityAP The former head of the Vatican’s financial watchdog testified Tuesday that the agency launched an intelligence investigation into a suspicious London real estate deal after it learned about it but had no power to stop the Vatican secretariat of state from concluding it. The testimony by defendant Rene Bruelhart in the Vatican’s big […]
Rights groups accuse Ethiopian regional forces of ethnic cleansing in Tigray
Addis Ababa, EthiopiaReuters Two leading human rights groups on Wednesday accused armed forces from Ethiopia’s Amhara region of waging a campaign of ethnic cleansing against ethnic Tigrayans during a war that has killed thousands of civilians and displaced more than a million. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said in a joint report that abuses […]