News in World Issues

The Netanyahu-Gantz Government and the future of the West Bank

The new executive is supported by the so-called “right-wing bloc,” a coalition of eight parties, several of which are small. It is the largest government in the history of the country, with as many as 34 ministers and 16 deputy ministers. In this regard, during the inaugural debate, a leading member of the opposition, Yair Lapid (who was initially an ally of Gantz), noted: “There are more ministers and deputy ministers in the government than people hospitalized for the coronavirus.”

Jesuit superior warns of pandemic threat to democracy

Democracy and efforts to build a more just world are under attack in many countries, according to Father Arturo Sosa SJ, superior general of the Jesuits. He said human lives and jobs are not the only things threatened by the coronavirus pandemic.

Pope Francis’ Chinese puzzle: appeasing Beijing is a serious misjudgement

The former governor of Hong Kong fears that the Holy See may be making a serious misjudgement in seeming to appease the Beijing government over the status of the Catholic Church, just as China is slipping back into the most hardline dictatorship since Mao. 

Burundi Catholic politician sworn in as president

Evariste Ndayishimiye, a practising Catholic who is known to bring the importance of God into politics, has been sworn as the president of Burundi. The president immediately promised to unite the people, promote peace and justice in the tiny East African country where majority are Catholics. He also swore to fight genocide ideology and discrimination.

Syria and Turkey Battle for Idlib Province

Nine years have passed since the Syrian conflict began, since the optimism of the 2011 Arab Spring turned into tragedy. For Syria, it all began on March 15 of that year, when protesters took to the streets in Daraa, in the southwest of the country. Soon protests – mostly peaceful – spread throughout the country, demanding an end to the 40-year rule of the Assad family.

A reflection on the latest abortion figures

Sadly, and ironically, just last week, the abortion statistics for 2019 were released – and they broke my heart. For the second year running, we recorded the highest abortion figures ever experienced in England and Wales. 

The corona experience, though suffused in tragedy, has shown us the very best of ourselves

Cheer, clap, rattle our pots and pans to show how much we cherish our NHS staff and all who work on the front lines in care homes, pharmacies, stores, transport and delivery or one of the three-quarters-of-a-million volunteers. I am not alone in hearing in that glorious cacophony the sound of a people and a nation rediscovering their better selves.

The Marshall Plan: One way to deal with the coronavirus crisis

This is what Pope Francis said in the Urbi et Orbi Easter Message, inviting Europe to give concrete proof of solidarity: “After the Second World War, this continent was able to rise again thanks to a concrete spirit of solidarity […]. It is more urgent than ever, especially in the present circumstances, that these rivalries do not regain force, but that all recognize themselves as part of a single family and support one another.” Today, the pope continued, “the European Union is presently facing an epochal challenge, on which will depend not only its own future but that of the whole world.”

The Plague Writers who predicted today

Survival, isolation, community and love are explored in these plausible, prescient books. Jane Ciabattari on the novels that tell us ‘we’ve been through this before and we’ve survived’.

Pope Francis and the Coronavirus Crisis

 An interview on ‘the courage to look ahead’. The whole planet is experiencing a crisis. At this most serious moment there is a need for guidance to accompany us and help us understand the meaning of what we are living through. 

Life in lockdown Britain

“How long, O Lord?” (Psalm 13). Before Covid-19, when I sang those words I used to think of my brothers and sisters in Iraq: how long will their suffering go on, decade after decade? Now they are the words in all our mouths. How long, O Lord, will this pandemic continue?

Life in the Time of Coronavirus

In a more recent book, the medical doctor and anthropologist Paul Farmer[3] states that in the time of cholera there is also a need to critically question all the social, cultural and political conditions that characterize people’s lives and so should be an integral part of any intervention aimed at promoting health on the ground.

There Is Hunger In The World Today

The famines of ancient Egypt are well known, the one that occurred in Rome in 5 BCE, those that decimated Europe in the Middle Ages,.. Recently, North Korea found itself unable to feed its population. It appears we are facing an endless problem, an endemic evil. Will humanity be able to heal this plague that has reappeared throughout history? What are its causes?

Shot for trying to build a church

Church leaders are condemning the second church attack in the province in three months. In November, a mob raided St. Dominic Catholic Church in Waqya Chak village of Arifwala subdistrict, destroying its boundary wall and gate. They also removed a cross from a wall.

Taiwan president tells pope of China's religious persecution

Despite the dangers of Nigeria, there is hope for the future

Nigeria has an estimated population of almost 200 million with roughly equal numbers of Christians and Muslims.  Its interfaith relations have implications for the whole of Africa.  Through terror Boko Haram, whose name meams "western education forbidden", has dominated the life of the states in the north-east, spilling over a porous border into Niger, Chad and Northern Cameroon.

Leonardo da Vinci: A Universal Man

Time for the Abolition of Nuclear Arms

During the Cold War the dominant strategic doctrine was MAD—Mutually Assured Destruction. The irony of the English acronym was grimly acknowledged by proponents and critics alike. You would have to be crazy to initiate a nuclear war that would bring destruction on a global scale.

Forgotten and invisible: modern-day slaves

The break-up of the UK would represent a sad coda for the Queen

But 12 December 2019 might also represent another historical way station of huge import. For it could be the last time MPs from Scotland are returned to the Westminster Parliament. The Scottish question was vividly put in The Guardian last month by Neal Ascherson when he claimed that “Brexit has delivered the United Kingdom to the hospice of history”. I hope it hasn’t – but I fear it has.