Pandemic makes tackling global woes more critical than ever – Bill Gates
New York City, USThomson Reuters Foundation The coronavirus pandemic has wiped out progress on lofty goals such as ending world poverty and hunger in the next decade, but the economic damage of COVID-19 shows how badly such global development is needed, philanthropist Bill Gates said. Across the world, the virus has deepened social and economic […]
As world falls behind on UN wildlife targets, bright spots offer hope
London, UK Reuters All the world’s governments have fallen short on pledges made a decade ago to protect wildlife, though cases of conservation show that the destruction of nature can be slowed, and even reversed, according to a UN report published on Tuesday. The report outlined recommendations for far-reaching changes in sectors from farming to […]
Hit by COVID and climate change, island states battle debt crisis
Barcelona, Spain Thomson Reuters Foundation As the coronavirus pandemic compounds worsening economic pressures from climate change impacts, small island developing nations on Monday appealed for international financial support to help them avert a looming debt crisis. Ahead of this month’s UN General Assembly, the Alliance of Small Island States has stepped up diplomatic pressure, calling […]
Dog called Bear leads fight to save koalas from Australian bushfires
Sydney, Australia Reuters Australian scientists are using sniffer dogs to rescue koalas struggling to survive damaging bushfires as they try to avoid a repeat of last year’s high death count of the native animals. Led by Bear, a border collie and Australian cattle dog cross, Detection Dogs for Conservation saved more than 100 koalas in […]
UN chief to push pandemic ceasefire at world leaders meeting, but fears opportunities lost
United Nations Reuters UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will use his annual address to world leaders next week to push for a global ceasefire until the end of 2020 so countries can fight the coronavirus pandemic, but he said opportunities will be lost because presidents and prime ministers are not physically in New York. Chinese President […]
Sea of Slush: Arctic sea ice lows mark a new polar climate regime
Arctic Ocean/Buenos Aires, Argentina Reuters At the edge of the ice blanketing part of the Arctic Ocean, the ice on Monday looked sickly. Where thick sheets of ice once sat atop the water, now a layer of soft, spongey slush slid and bobbed atop the waves. From the deck of a research ship under a […]
Influential US pastor, Charles Stanley, steps down at First Baptist Church Atlanta after 50 years
RNS Charles Stanley doesn’t believe in retirement, he said. But the influential pastor is stepping down from his role at First Baptist Church Atlanta after more than 50 years. Pastor Charles Stanley preaches. PICTURE: Video screengrab via In Touch Ministries “As much as I love being your pastor, I know in my heart this season […]
US Black church leaders demand apology for Trump ad
RNS Leaders of the African Methodist Episcopal Church and the pastor of an AME congregation in Wilmington, Delaware, are condemning a Trump-Pence campaign ad that uses footage of Joe Biden kneeling in the sanctuary of a Black church, describing it as racist and demanding an apology. Rev Silvester S Beaman, pastor of Bethel AME Church, […]
US election: Spotlight mostly bypasses mainline Protestants as evangelicals and Catholics dominate
DAVID CRARY, of Associated Press, reports on how mainline Protestant denominations have been quietly (relatively speaking) going about the work of, among others, fighting racism and voter suppression…
Isolation
It might surprise you to find that I’m actually an introvert – I like time to myself. PICTURE: Jon Eric Marababol/Unsplash So the beginning of the pandemic, and associated isolation, didn’t seem too much of a problem to me. Working from home, with ideas not people, wonderful. But after about three days of not leaving […]