Iraqi cleric Sadr calls off protests after worst Baghdad violence in years
Baghdad, IraqReuters Powerful cleric Muqtada al-Sadr ordered his followers to end their protests in central Baghdad on Tuesday, easing a confrontation which led to the deadliest violence in the Iraqi capital in years. Apologising to Iraqis after 22 people were killed in clashes between an armed group loyal to him and rival Shi’ite Muslim factions […]
Zelenskiy tells Russians to run for their lives from Ukraine offensive in south
Mykolaiv/Kyiv, Ukraine Reuters Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged Russian soldiers to flee for their lives after his forces launched an offensive to retake southern Ukraine, but Moscow said it had repulsed the attack and inflicted heavy losses on Kyiv’s troops. Ukraine said on Monday its ground forces had gone on the offensive for the first […]
Cataclysmic floods in Pakistan kill 1,100, including 380 children
Charsadda, Pakistan Reuters Torrential rains and flooding have submerged a third of Pakistan and killed more than 1,100 people, including 380 children as the United Nations appealed for aid on Tuesday for what it described as an “unprecedented climate catastrophe.” Army helicopters plucked stranded families and dropped food packages to inaccessible areas as the historic […]
Gibraltar recognised as a British city, 180 years late
London, UKReuters Gibraltar finally joined the official list of British cities on Monday, after 180 years in which its status, granted by Queen Victoria, had been overlooked due to an administrative error. The British overseas territory bid to become a city earlier this year as part of the celebrations for Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee, but […]
Ukraine’s schools race to build bomb shelters before term starts
Kyiv, UkraineReuters Svitlana tears up thinking of the bombing that leveled her son Illia’s school in Lysychansk, a city in the eastern Ukrainian region of Luhansk now occupied by Russian forces, but she is determined to ensure the eighth-grader continues his studies. “My son’s school is not there anymore. It was bombed completely – and […]
Matt Chandler, US megachurch pastor and ACTS 29 leader, placed on leave
United StatesRNS A popular Dallas-area megachurch leader has been placed on indefinite leave for online communication with a woman who is not his wife. Leaders at The Village Church, based in Flower Mound, Texas, announced longtime pastor Matt Chandler’s leave during a service this past weekend, citing inappropriate Instagram messages. Pastor Matt Chandler preaches at […]
Flag raised in Canada to honour residential school survivors
Ottawa, Ontario, CanadaAP The Canadian Government raised the Survivors’ Flag on Parliament Hill on Monday as a way to honour Indigenous peoples forced to attend the country’s notorious residential schools. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was joined by survivors of residential schools from across the country. More than 150,000 native children in Canada were forced to […]
Floods, other water-related disasters could cost global economy $US5.6 trillion by 2050 – report
London, UK Reuters Worsening droughts, storms and torrential rain in some of the world’s largest economies could cause $US5.6 trillion in losses to the global economy by 2050, according to a report released on Monday. This year heavy rains have triggered floods that inundated cities in China and South Korea and disrupted water and electricity supply […]
Suffering
Suffering is an inescapable, if not essential, part of life. PICTURE: Road Trip with Raj/Unsplash Until we confront that truth, and make peace with it – we can’t live. In the Western world, we’re not set up to make peace with suffering, but to avoid it. Our wealth and prosperity, pop psychology, helicopter parenting, even […]
Death and deforestation: Cocaine trade adds to Amazon’s woes
ANDRE CABETTE FABIO, of Thomson Reuters Foundation, reports on how the murders of Bruno Pereira and Dom Phillips have stoked concern in Brazil about links between drugs smugglers and environmental crime…