It’s OK to joke about God but don’t offend, Pope tells comedians
Vatican City Reuters It’s OK to make fun of God as long as the joke is not offensive, Pope Francis said on Friday in a special audience with about 100 comedians, actors and writers from around the world. Those meeting him at the Vatican included US showbiz celebrities Whoopi Goldberg, Jimmy Fallon, Conan O’Brien, Chris […]
Ruing past boarding-school abuses, US Catholic bishops consider new outreach to Native Americans
Louisville, Kentucky, US AP US bishops want to assure Native Catholics that they don’t need to feel torn between their Native identity and their Catholic one. “You do not have to be one or the other. You are both. Your cultural embodiment of the faith is a gift to the Church,” according to a draft […]
Snapshot: Bran, Romania
See CALIN STAN’s image…
UK’s Labour vows overhaul of parliament upper chamber if it wins power
Manchester, UK Reuters Britain’s opposition Labour Party, which is currently way ahead in opinion polls before an election next month, said it would reform parliament’s upper chamber to remove the right of hereditary peers to sit in the House of Lords. The grand, centuries-old ornate red and gold chamber in the Palace of Westminster currently […]
The Reformed Church in America to vote on restructuring
United States RNS In the past five years, the Reformed Church in America, one of the oldest denominations in the US, has lost almost half its membership and nearly a quarter of its churches. Some members see in the collapse an opportunity to reinvent the 400-year-old church, founded by Dutch settlers in the mid-1600s. “There’s […]
Trump talks tariffs and taxes, calls Republican host city “horrible”
Washington DC, US Reuters Donald Trump criticised US aid to Ukraine and suggested raising tariffs to replace the US income tax on a Thursday visit to Capitol Hill where he also called the city hosting his party’s presidential convention “horrible”. In separate meetings with Republicans in the House of Representatives and the Senate, Trump sought […]
South Africa’s ANC in 11th hour talks over unity government as deadline nears
Cape Town, South Africa Reuters South Africa’s African National Congress said late on Thursday that several other parties had agreed to join it in a unity government but the details were not yet finalised, the night before the newly-elected parliament was due to sit. The former liberation movement has been holding hurried talks with rivals […]
Famine watchdog projects 756,000 Sudanese face starvation in coming months
Reuters An estimated 756,000 people in Sudan could face catastrophic food shortages by September, according to a preliminary projection used by United Nations agencies and aid groups to determine whether to officially declare a famine. The preliminary results, as of 1st June and seen by Reuters, reflect a rapidly deteriorating situation in the war-torn country. […]
UK Labour leader Starmer stakes all on wealth creation with election offer
Manchester, UK Reuters British opposition Labour leader Keir Starmer put wealth creation at the heart of his pitch to voters on Thursday, vowing to provide political and economic stability to help businesses reignite the country’s paltry rate of economic growth. With three weeks to go before an election that polls say he is on course […]
“A second chance”: Washington state pioneers program to turn inmates into wildland firefighters
MATT MCKNIGHT, of Reuters, reports on an innovative program to teach inmates skills needed to help prevent forest fires and provide them with an opportunity to start on the path to a new career…