Texas Attorney General moves to shut down Catholic migrant shelters
United States RNS Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has sued a volunteer-run network of Catholic migrant shelters based in El Paso, Texas, aiming to revoke the organisation’s non-profit registration. The lawsuit comes after Annunciation House moved to delay handing over documents about its clients to the Attorney General. Paxton’s office said it had demanded Annunciation House records because of […]
Australian retired bishop charged with child sex abuse
Sydney, Australia Reuters A retired Roman Catholic bishop appeared in court in remote Western Australia on Thursday on charges of sexual offences against children, including two counts of rape. The charges against Christopher Saunders were presented on Thursday morning in Broome Magistrates Court, said a court spokesperson, who declined to say whether Saunders had entered […]
Heads of SBC mission boards say they will not fund new abuse reform non-profit
Nashville, Tennessee, US RNS Leaders of two major Southern Baptist mission boards said they will not help fund a proposed independent non-profit meant to implement the denomination’s abuse reforms. Plans for the non-profit were announced on Monday night during a meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Executive Committee. The headquarters of the Southern Baptist Convention is seen […]
South Korea emergency units turn back patients as doctors protest
Seoul, South Korea Reuters South Korea’s biggest hospitals cancelled procedures and turned away patients seeking emergency care on Wednesday after thousands of trainee doctors walked off the job in protest at a government plan to boost medical school admissions. One hospital, the Asan Medical Center in Seoul, put up a sign saying its emergency unit […]
US urges Pakistan to lift internet shutdowns, social media restrictions
Washington DC, US Reuters The US State Department on Wednesday condemned internet shutdowns in Pakistan, including restrictions on social media platforms, and urged the Pakistani Government to lift such restrictions. Supporters of the Grand Democratic Alliance, an alliance of political parties, carry flags as they gather for a sit-in protest against, what they call election […]
Ukrainian soldiers expect more assaults after Russian forces capture eastern town
Near Avdiivka, Ukraine Reuters Ukrainian soldiers dug in around new positions outside of Avdiivka say Russian forces who captured the eastern Ukrainian town last week are pressing on toward nearby towns and villages. “It doesn’t end with them taking Avdiivka. They continue assaulting [our positions],” said Andriy, a Ukrainian drone pilot of the 47th Mechanised […]
Vatican restorers set to work on St Peter’s centrepiece
Vatican City Reuters The giant bronze-and-wood canopy in the middle of St Peter’s Basilica is being gradually engulfed by scaffolding as Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s masterpiece gets its first major restoration since the mid-1700s. The almost 30-metre-high canopy covers the high altar of the basilica, and was built on the spot where St Peter, the first […]
An “emerging drug”: Fentanyl use spreads deeper into Mexico, on heels of US epidemic
LAURA GOTTESDIENER and BRENDAN O’BOYLE, of Reuters, report…
Russian activists abroad pin hopes on Yulia Navalnaya
Tbilisi, Georgia Reuters Like many other young Russians, Anastasia Panchenko’s political awakening came courtesy of Alexei Navalny. Left reeling by his sudden death, she is looking now to his widow Yulia to take on the mantle of Russian opposition leader. Since Navalny died in an Arctic penal colony last Friday, Panchenko has been coming most […]
Essay: Unmarked graves, violent repression and cultural erasure: the devastating human toll of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
JON RICHARDSON, a visiting fellow at the Centre for European Studies at Australian National University, looks – in an article first published on The Conversation – at the devastation two years of war has wrought on Ukraine…