Chinese pastor released after two and a half years in prison

World Watch Monitor A Chinese pastor was released on Tuesday, after being detained for two and a half years for “illegally possessing state secrets”, reports Christian Solidarity Worldwide. Pastor Yang Hua of Huoshi Church (which means Living Stone), in the south-western province of Guizhou, was arrested in December, 2015. He was sentenced a year later, in […]
StrangeSights: Suits for blue collar workers; Czech President burns giant red undies; and, 25 years of free travel for a Parisian baby

DAVID ADAMS looks at the odder side of life…
Cities face dramatic rise in heat, flood risks by 2050, researchers say

Thomson Reuters Foundation In just 30 years, cities around the world will face dramatically higher risks from extreme heat, coastal flooding, power blackouts and food and water shortages unless climate-changing emissions are curbed, urban researchers warned this week. Today, for instance, more than 200 million people in 350 cities face stifling heat where average daily […]
Plan for Rome seeks to avert ‘dangerous’ tensions, reap benefits of migrants
Thomson Reuters Foundation Rome must help refugees integrate into life in Italy’s capital city, to cut the risk of tensions between communities that could escalate to dangerous levels – and to benefit from the fresh life they bring to an ageing population, officials said. Welcoming migrants is an important way to strengthen Rome, the city […]
Longer-term impact of Royal Wedding sermon on Brits limited, poll suggests

US Episcopal Bishop Michael Curry’s 14 minute sermon may have been the most “tweeted moment” during the Royal Wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in Windsor last month, but a new poll suggests that its longer-term impact may not have been as great as some may have hoped. Commissioned by British thinktank Theos and […]
IMMIGRATION: MORE THAN 600 UNITED METHODISTS FILE FORMAL CHURCH COMPLAINT AGAINST US ATTORNEY GENERAL JEFF SESSIONS

JACK JENKINS and EMILY MCFARLAN MILLER, of Religion News Service, look at a move by hundreds of UMC clergy and laypeople to rebuke US Attorney General Jeff Sessions amid an ongoing controversy over the Trump administration’s ‘zero tolerance’ immigration policy…
US Christian geneticist Francis Collins ponders promise, peril of biotechnology

RNS To geneticist Francis Collins, a person’s DNA can be compared to the beauty of a Gothic cathedral’s rose window. “I think that is a visual way to point out the beauty of what it is that God has given us as a creation,” Collins said as he stood below a screen at the National […]
Essay: What churches can do to help victims of sexual violence in conflict to stay ‘part of us’

In an article first published on World Watch Monitor to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict, ELIZABETH LANE MILLER, of Open Doors International, looks at the role churches can play in helping survivors of sexual violence in conflict…
Postcards: As Venezuela’s health system crumbles, pregnant women flee to Colombia

ANASTASIA MOLONEY, of ThomsoN Reuters Foundation, reports on the plight of Venezuelan women forced to give birth in neighbouring Colombia as the healthcare infrastructure in their own nation crumbles…
Wars, persecution drive record 68.5 million from their homes – UN

Thomson Reuters Foundation Wars, persecution and other violence have driven a record 68.5 million people from their homes, more than the population of Britain or France, the UN refugee agency UNHCR said on Tuesday. Here are some facts from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees’ annual Global Trends study, published on the eve of World […]