US President Donald Trump’s housing budget leaves poorest out in the cold, advocates say
Thomson Reuters Foundation A decade after the housing bubble burst in the United States, affordable homes are available to as little as 20 per cent of the poorest families that need them in some states, according to a report published by housing advocates on Thursday. That national shortfall, despite showing some recent improvement, is still worse than […]
Trump administration moves to fill long-vacant post of anti-Semitism envoy
RNS More than two years into his administration, President Trump is set to name a Los Angeles prosecutor as his anti-Semitism envoy, a post many Jewish leaders and interfaith activists have repeatedly pleaded with the president to fill. Elan Carr, 50, a US Army veteran who served in Iraq and was national president of the […]
ESSAY: IT’S TIME FOR A GRAND COMPROMISE ON RELIGIOUS FREEDOM AND CONTRACEPTIVES
Writing from the US, Catholic commentor THOMAS REESE, in an article first published by Religion News Service, says its time for the proponents of religious liberty to offer to “negotiate a grand compromise with those who promote women’s rights” over the issue of contraception…
US IMMIGRATION: FAITH-BASED AGENCIES OPEN DOORS TO KIDS SEPARATED AT THE BORDER
EMILY MCFARLAN MILLER and JACK JENKINS report for Religion News Service on how faith groups have responded to the US immigration crisis…
ESSAY: WHY THE US LEFT THE UN HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL – AND WHY IT MATTERS
In an article first published in The Conversation, ROSA FREEDMAN, of the UK’s University of Reading, looks at the US decision to leave the UN Human Rights Council…
Catholic bishops rebuke Trump’s asylum changes, suggest ‘canonical penalties’
RNS The US Conference of Catholic Bishops opened its spring meeting this week with a stern reproach of the Trump administration’s latest immigration policies, with the group’s president suggesting the new rules on asylum are a “right to life” issue. Some bishops followed by urging protests, including “canonical penalties” for those who carry out the […]
IMMIGRATION BANS: IN THE US, REFUGEE GROUPS FIGHT TRUMP TRAVEL BAN – AND FOR THEIR OWN SURVIVAL
In this special in-depth report, JACK JENKINS and EMILY MCFARLAN MILLER, of Religion News Service, look at how faith groups dedicated to aiding refugees are being impacted by – and fighting against – the Trump administration’s travel bans in the US…
Forcing Salvadorans out of US carries twin risks says Red Cross
Thomson Reuters Foundation Moves by the United States to expel 200,000 Salvadorans could rob families in El Salvador of vital overseas income and overwhelm the tiny country as people flood home in search of a new life, according to the Red Cross. The 200,000 Salvadorans have been living in the United States since 2001 but […]
STRANGESIGHTS: ‘SELFIECCINOS’; BAD WORDS; AND, US TOWN’S RESIDENTS BECOME SCOTTISH LORDS…
DAVID ADAMS writes about the odder side of life…
In the US, religious objection order gives broad leeway to employers to drop birth control coverage
USA Today/RNS The Trump administration is expanding the religious exemption for employers that don’t want to provide insurance coverage for certain birth control methods because they have moral objections under rules announced Friday. The Affordable Care Act required all employers to cover birth control for their workers without any co-payment, but the provision has been embroiled […]