UN experts investigate 58 cyberattacks worth $US3 billion by North Korea
United Nations Reuters United Nations sanctions monitors are investigating dozens of suspected cyberattacks by North Korea that raked in $US3 billion to help it further develop its nuclear weapons program, according to excerpts of an unpublished UN report reviewed by Reuters. “The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) continued to flout Security Council sanctions,” a […]
Snapshot: Monaco
See MAXIM STUIJ’s image…
Monarch butterfly numbers in Mexico plummet to near record low
Mexico City Reuters The population of monarch butterflies in the Mexican forests where they spend the winter fell to the second-lowest figure on record this season, offering a grim snapshot of the already endangered orange-and-black insects. The iconic butterflies’ presence was only documented in 0.9 hectares of forest spanning a couple Mexican states where they […]
Spain’s paella rice could “disappear”, say farmers angry at EU rules
Madrid, Spain Reuters A Spanish rice variety traditionally used to make paella is under threat from a fungus after the European Union banned a pesticide farmers said they relied upon, in another example of how the bloc’s environmental rules are angering growers. Three rice producers in the Valencia region said their harvest of arroz bomba, […]
More than 8,000 killed during 2022 Mariupol siege – Human Rights Watch
Geneva, Switzerland Reuters At least 8,000 people were killed by fighting or war-related causes in Russia’s months-long conquest of Mariupol, one of the biggest battles of the nearly two-year war between Russia and Ukraine, according to Human Rights Watch. Mariupol became a byword for horror during a nearly three-month-long Russian siege for control of the […]
Slovakia approves criminal law reforms that sparked protests
Reuters The Slovak parliament approved reforms scrapping a special prosecution branch dealing with high-level crime and lowering punishments for financial crimes in a fast-track procedure on Thursday, amid public protests and concerns from the European Commission. The government of Prime Minister Robert Fico, who took power last October for the fourth time after a stint […]
El Salvador launches mass trial for nearly 500 accused gang leaders
San Salvador, El Salvador Reuters El Salvador on Thursday kicked off a mass trial to prosecute nearly 500 alleged leaders of the Mara Salvatrucha gang for more than 37,000 crimes committed over a decade, the Central American nation’s prosecutor’s office said. Alleged members of the Mara Salvatrucha gang appear on a screen during a remote […]
Climate change drives world to first 12-month spell over 1.5 degrees
Brussels, Belgium/London, UK Reuters The world just experienced its warmest January on record, marking the first 12-month period in which temperatures averaged more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times, the European Union’s climate change monitoring service said on Thursday. Already 2023 was the planet’s hottest year in global records going back to 1850, as […]
United Methodists: Legislation aims to “decolonise”, give parity to non-US conferences
YONAT SHIMRON, of Religion News Service, reports that a proposed regionalisation plan would undo the dominance and control of the US church and make it on par with United Methodist conferences abroad…
In the US, faith-based organisations are concerned about the immigration policy landscape
United States RNS While congressional Democrats are chiding Republican senators for walking away from a compromise immigration bill that restricts asylum, faith-based agencies that work with refugees and asylum-seekers expressed alarm in recent days about provisions of the bill and the turn that the conversation about immigration has taken. “You’re not going to solve anything […]