Updated: Eight dead in Sloviansk strike as Ukrainians said to pull back in Bakhmut

Updated: 10:50am (AEST) Sloviansk, Ukraine Reuters A Russian missile strike killed eight people in eastern Ukraine on Friday as a British assessment said Ukrainian troops had been forced to withdraw from parts of the city of Bakhmut, the focus of Moscow’s slow advance through the region. Ukrainian troops have been doggedly defending Bakhmut, shattered after […]
Cyclone Ilsa hits Australia’s north-west, misses iron ore export hub

Sydney, Australia Reuters A tropical cyclone smashed into Australia’s north-west coast as a category 5 storm, setting new wind speed records, but has largely spared populated regions including the world’s largest iron ore export hub at Port Hedland, authorities said on Friday. Cyclone Ilsa made landfall early Friday morning with the highest intensity rating on […]
Ukraine reports unrelenting Russian attacks on key city of Bakhmut

Reuters Russia’s military on Thursday pressed on with unrelenting attacks on the smashed eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut and also shelled the southern city of Kherson, officials in Kyiv said. The Kremlin sees Bakhmut as pivotal in its slow-moving advance through eastern Ukraine more than a year after it invaded its neighbour. Ukrainian artillery fires […]
Snapshot: Fanning Island, Kiribati

See TED PAGEL’s image…
Soundbite – The TCM Update: Jeremy Camp to tour Australia and, Burlap to Cashmere’s comeback concerts…

Jeremy Camp Listen to this week’s TCM Update…
Among US Latinos, Catholicism still largest faith – poll

New York, US AP Catholics remain the largest religious group among Latinos in the United States, but the number of Latinos who identify as religiously unaffiliated continues to grow. Those are among the key findings in a comprehensive report released Thursday by the Pew Research Center that surveyed 7,647 US adults from 1st to 14th […]
Medical charity MSF appeals to Russia for access to occupied Ukraine

Geneva, Switzerland Reuters Médecins Sans Frontières held talks last month with Russian diplomats in Geneva on providing aid to areas of Ukraine under Russian military control but has yet to be granted access, the medical charity said on Thursday. International aid organisations have been unable to reach large swathes of Ukraine controlled by Russian forces […]
Colombian armed groups and gangs have 17,600 members, intelligence reports find

Bogota, Colombia Reuters More than 17,600 people are members of the four major armed groups and 23 gangs with which the Colombian Government hopes to reach peace or surrender deals, two security agency reports seen by Reuters show. The newly updated figures, which have not been reported before, are an effort to understand the current […]
In the US, James MacDonald, former Harvest Bible pastor, charged with felony assault and battery

United States RNS Former Chicago area megachurch pastor James MacDonald has been charged with two felonies for allegedly assaulting a woman during a dispute over parking. MacDonald, who was fired from Harvest Bible Chapel in 2019 and later disqualified from ministry for what church leaders called a “substantial pattern of sinful behaviour”, was arrested in Coronado, California, on 22nd […]
Church under pressure: Holy Land Christians say attacks rising in far-right Israel

ISABEL DEBRE, of Associated Press, reports from Jerusalem…