Sudan security forces skirmish with demonstrators after protest deaths
Khartoum, Sudan Reuters Sudanese security forces fired tear gas at protesters on Friday near the presidential palace in Khartoum, a day after nine people were reported killed during the largest anti-military rallies for months. Protest groups demanding a return to democratic rule have said they will organise an open-ended campaign of sit-ins and other peaceful […]
Updated: Russian missile strikes near Ukraine’s Odesa kill 21
Updated: 8.40am, 2nd July, 2021 (AEST)Kyiv, Ukraine Reuters Russia flattened part of an apartment building while residents slept on Friday in missile attacks near Ukraine’s port of Odesa that authorities said killed at least 21 people, hours after Russian troops abandoned the Black Sea outpost of Snake Island. Residents in the resort village of Serhiivka […]
In Hong Kong, Xi says “one country, two systems” is here to stay
Hong Kong, ChinaReuters There is no reason to change Hong Kong’s “one country, two systems” formula of governance, Chinese President Xi Jinping said on a rare visit to the global financial hub after swearing in the city’s new leader, John Lee, on Friday. Britain returned Hong Kong to Chinese rule on 1st July, 1997, with […]
Snapshot: Los Planes de Renderos, San Salvador, El Salvador
See OSWALDO MARTINEZ’ image…
Soundbite – The TCM Update: Hillsong United’s ‘Are We There Yet?’ about the journey
Listen to this week’s TCM Update…
In the US, Columbia Theological Seminary accused of racism amid influx of Black students
RNS In 2018, the incoming class at Columbia Theological Seminary, a Presbyterian Church (USA) seminary in the tree-lined suburbs of Atlanta, was 47 per cent white and 16 per cent Black. Just three years later, a 2021 admissions brochure advertised an incoming class that was more than 64 per cent Black and 32 per cent […]
Girls’ education raised at Taliban’s first national gathering since takeover
Kabul, AfghanistanReuters Religious and ethnic leaders from across Afghanistan discussed girls’ education at a gathering organised by the country’s Taliban rulers on Thursday – but without any women taking part. It was the first such meeting since the hardline Islamist group took over Afghanistan last August as Western forces withdrew, a change in power that […]
Ukraine’s Lviv symbolically votes to ban formerly Moscow-affiliated church
Kyiv, UkraineReuters The local council in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on Thursday became the first to ban a branch of the Orthodox church that was until last month directly affiliated with Moscow. According to Lviv mayor Andriy Sadovyi, the unanimous council vote to prohibit the activity of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – with […]
United Methodists: What happened to the proposal to split the denomination?
EMILY MCFARLAN MILLER, of Religion News Service, reports that before United Methodists could vote on the widely endorsed plan, traditionalists went ahead and launched a new denomination and several representatives of centrist and progressive groups revoked their support…
New World Council of Churches head draws criticism over Israel remarks
RNS Since being elected to lead the World Council of Churches earlier this month, Rev Jerry Pillay, former general secretary of the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa, has been rebuffing critics who accuse him of making anti-Semitic remarks by referring to Israel’s treatment of Palestinians as tantamount to apartheid. Pillay, the dean of the […]