Scientific study finds asylum seekers boosting European economies
Thomson Reuters Foundation Asylum seekers moving to Europe have raised their adopted nations’ economic output, lowered unemployment and not placed a burden on public finances, scientists said on Wednesday. An analysis of economic and migration data for the last three decades found asylum seekers added to gross domestic products and boosted net tax revenues by […]
GreenSight: The ‘eshel’ a Biblical shade tree and metaphor for Israel

ALVIN JOHNSON takes a look at the Biblical plant known as the ‘eshel’…
Music Soundbite – The TCM Update: ‘Rivers of Babylon’ Boney M’s “anthem”

Boney M’s Maizie Williams Listen to this week’s TCM Update…
West End theatre turns migrant camp to get London audience talking

Thomson Reuters Foundation London theatre-goers used to spectating in comfort are in for a rude awakening after the authors of a play swapped the traditional plush velvet seating for wooden benches and covered the floor with soil to simulate the feel of a migrant camp. The Playhouse Theatre in London’s West End aims to immerse […]
Retired Cardinal McCarrick pulled from ministry after sex abuse claim deemed credible

RNS A sexual abuse allegation made against a top retired US Catholic cleric, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, has been deemed “credible and substantiated” by church authorities, who ordered McCarrick to cease all public activities. The announcement follows an investigation of McCarrick by the Archdiocese of New York to assess an allegation that the cardinal abused a […]
CENTRAL AMERICA: ‘NARCO-DEFORESTATION’ MAY BOOST DISASTER RISKS, SAY EXPERTS

SEBASTIAN RODRIGUEZ, of Thomson Reuters Foundation, reports on how illicit drug trafficking gangs are damaging the environment in Central American states…
Churches body urged Philippines Government to address “worsening human rights situation”
The World Council of Churches has urged the Philippines Government to address the “worsening human rights situation and increasing violence and impunity in the country”. In a statement issued this week, the WCC’s Central Committee said they were “deeply alarmed by the escalating violence, extrajudicial killings and other human rights abuses in the Philippines in […]
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…
Conflict, climate change choke efforts to cure poverty, inequality – UN
Thomson Reuters Foundation Climate change and conflict are forcing growing numbers of people to go hungry, flee their homes and lose critical access to water, the United Nations said on Wednesday in a look at progress in its global development goals. The number of hungry people has risen for the first time in a decade, […]