All posts tagged: Cross

Four migrants, including 2-year-old, die trying to cross the Channel

Four migrants, including 2-year-old, die trying to cross the Channel

Published by Sam

Four migrants, including a two-year-old child, died in two separate tragedies overnight Friday, October 4, to Saturday, October 5, while attempting to cross the Channel, French authorities said. The body of a two-year-old child was found in a boat, while three adult migrants died while seeking to reach British shores in another boat, regional prefect Jacques Billant said on Saturday. In the morning, an “overloaded” dinghy, carrying around 90 people and suffering engine failure, requested assistance. Fourteen people aboard the dinghy were recovered by a vessel, including a 2-year-old child who was found unresponsive, Billant announced on Saturday afternoon. According to the Boulogne-sur-Mer public prosecutor, Guirec Le Bras, preliminary evidence suggests that the child was “crushed” to death in the dinghy. An injured teenager was hospitalized in Boulogne. The other passengers continued on to the UK. Read more Subscribers only Small boat shipwrecks continue in the English Channel On a second boat, also overloaded, “several engine failures caused panic” off Calais, and some migrants fell overboard but were rescued, said the prefect. Three people, two …

Wanting Jesus but Not the Cross – OpentheWord.org

Wanting Jesus but Not the Cross – OpentheWord.org

Published by skeptic

Crucifix at St Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church, Belfast, Northern Ireland, UKCredit: K Mitch Hodge, unsplash.com In August 2003, the New York Times reported on a theft at the Church of the Holy Cross in Midtown Manhattan when caretakers noticed on Sunday morning that a 200-pound plaster rendering of Christ had been removed from a wooden cross near the church’s entrance.  The fact that a statue was stolen was less surprising than how it was stolen.  The statue was about four feet long, with a steel core, and had been bolted to the cross in four places.  The thieves had entered the church, unbolted the figure of Jesus and carried it off, leaving the cross behind.  One of the caretakers told the Times, “They just decided, ‘We’re going to leave the cross and take Jesus.’ We don’t know why they took just him. We figure if you want the whole crucifix, you take the whole crucifix.”  In effect, the thieves wanted Jesus but not the cross. I suspect that many of us are guilty of something …

Cross Party Working Key For Green Investor Confidence, Says Environment APPG Chair

Cross Party Working Key For Green Investor Confidence, Says Environment APPG Chair

Published by Sam

Strathern after winning is by-election in October 2023 (Alamy) 4 min read11 August Cross-party working and consensus is key in giving investors confidence in the UK’s green agenda, according to new chair of the Environment APPG, Alistair Strathern. Strathern, who also serves as Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ PPS, told PoliticsHome that the Treasury and the government are “unwavering” on the importance of the green agenda, despite the downgrading of the promised £28bn green prosperity plan earlier this year.  The Labour MP worked in climate at the Bank of England before being elected to Parliament for the first time last year.  He thinks that the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) is “really important” in terms of policy thinking, but also in building a sense of cross-party ambition beyond parliaments and governments, that could help attract long-term investment.  Strathern believes the group will be “leaning in behind the much more ambitious evidence-led approach this government is taking on climate and nature issues, but looking to do that in a way that builds out the cross party consensus …

10 things you didn’t know about the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement | We Are Here For Humanity

10 things you didn’t know about the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement | We Are Here For Humanity

Published by Sam

The Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement started with the creation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in 1863, in response to the terrible human toll of the revolutionary conflicts raging in Europe in the second half of the 19th century. Seven years later the British Red Cross was established. Today, the Movement is active in 191 countries and has been a constant and reassuring presence at some of the world’s most harrowing events: from being among the first to provide humanitarian support after the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945, to providing vital assistance to those affected by last year’s devastating earthquakes in Morocco, Turkey and Syria. You may know some of these facts, but did you know … 1 The Red Cross’s ‘red cross’ is not a logoEven though it is one of the most recognisable pieces of graphic design in the world, the red cross emblem is not just some clever bit of branding: it is a symbol of protection in armed conflict, the use of which …

Panama president-elect pledges to deport migrants who cross Darien Gap

Panama president-elect pledges to deport migrants who cross Darien Gap

Published by skeptic

Panama will deport US-bound migrants who enter the country through the notoriously dangerous stretch of jungle known as the Darien Gap, president-elect Jose Raul Mulino said Thursday, May 9. “In order to do away with the odyssey that is the Darien Gap … with international aid we will begin a process of repatriation, in full compliance with the human rights of all the people there,” Mulino said in a speech to the election body that formally declared him president after last Sunday’s polls. The 165-mile (265-kilometer) Darien Gap, which lies on the border with Colombia to the south, has become a key corridor for migrants heading from South America through Central America and Mexico in hopes of reaching the United States and a chance at a better life there. They face dense jungle, treacherous terrain, wild animals and violent criminal gangs that extort, kidnap and abuse them. Read more Subscribers only Panama president-elect promises to close Darien Gap migrant route In 2023, a record 520,000 people – most of them Venezuelans – crossed through the …

Is the U.S.-Mexico border easy to cross? We went to find out

Is the U.S.-Mexico border easy to cross? We went to find out

Published by skeptic

Álvaro Enciso places crosses at sites where migrants are known to have died in the borderland, this cross represents the death of Nolberto Torres-Zayas just east of Arivaca, Arizona on Wednesday, March 27, 2024. Torres-Zayas died of hyperthermia in 2009, not far from a Humane Borders water cache that had been vandalized and drained. Ash Ponders for NPR hide caption toggle caption Ash Ponders for NPR Álvaro Enciso places crosses at sites where migrants are known to have died in the borderland, this cross represents the death of Nolberto Torres-Zayas just east of Arivaca, Arizona on Wednesday, March 27, 2024. Torres-Zayas died of hyperthermia in 2009, not far from a Humane Borders water cache that had been vandalized and drained. Ash Ponders for NPR NOGALES, Ariz. – It’s easy to walk south from the U.S. into Mexico. What’s hard is going the other way. A team of NPR journalists experienced that for ourselves, on a bright day in March when we passed easily through a legal port of entry that separates Nogales, Arizona, from Nogales, …

More than 700 people cross Channel in busiest day of the year so far | Politics News

More than 700 people cross Channel in busiest day of the year so far | Politics News

Published by skeptic

More than 700 migrants arrived in the UK after crossing the English Channel in a single day – a new record for the year so far. The Home Office said 711 people made the journey in 14 boats on Wednesday, suggesting an average of 51 people per boat. It takes the provisional total for the number of arrivals this year so far to 8,278. This is 34% higher than the total at the equivalent point last year and 19% higher than the total at this stage in 2022. Last year 29,437 migrants arrived in the UK altogether, which was down 36% on a record 45,774 arrivals in 2022. The government’s Rwanda deportation plan aims to act as a deterrent to “stop the boats” – one of Rishi Sunak’s key pledges. Since the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Act became law last week, 1,611 migrants have crossed the English Channel. The legislation aims to revive the stalled scheme which has faced repeated legal challenges since it was announced two years ago. Read more:Migrants removed from …

Grace O’Malley-Kumar: Parents call for ‘hero’ daughter, 19, stabbed to death in Nottingham to be awarded George Cross | UK News

Grace O’Malley-Kumar: Parents call for ‘hero’ daughter, 19, stabbed to death in Nottingham to be awarded George Cross | UK News

Published by skeptic

The parents of a student who was stabbed to death in Nottingham while trying to save her friend have called for her to be awarded the George Cross so she can be “remembered forever”. Grace O’Malley-Kumar, 19, “heroically and valiantly fought” Valdo Calocane when he attacked fellow student Barnaby Webber as they returned from a night out celebrating the end of exams last June, her father Dr Sanjoy Kumar said. During Calocane’s trial, prosecutor Karim Khalil KC said Ms O’Malley-Kumar had shown “incredible bravery” by trying to protect Mr Webber from Calocane’s blows and tried to fight him off, pushing him away and into the road. The killer then turned his attention to her and was “as uncompromisingly brutal in his assault of Grace as he was in his assault of Barnaby”, Mr Khalil said. Calocane admitted killing Grace, Barnaby and school caretaker Ian Coates on the basis of diminished responsibility, a plea which the Crown Prosecution Service has accepted. Image: (L-R) Ian Coates, Barnaby Webber, Grace O’Malley-Kumar MPs have since called for Ms O’Malley-Kumar, …

Grace O’Malley-Kumar: PM backs calls for 19-year-old stabbed to death in Nottingham to be awarded George Cross | UK News

Grace O’Malley-Kumar: PM backs calls for 19-year-old stabbed to death in Nottingham to be awarded George Cross | UK News

Published by skeptic

Rishi Sunak has backed calls for a student who was stabbed to death while trying to save to her friend to be awarded a posthumous George Cross. Grace O’Malley-Kumar, 19, fought Valdo Calocane when he attacked fellow student Barnaby Webber as they returned from a night out celebrating the end of exams last June. During Calocane’s trial, prosecutor Karim Khalil KC said Ms O’Malley-Kumar had shown “incredible bravery” by trying to protect Mr Webber from Calocane’s blows and tried to fight him off, pushing him away and into the road. The killer then turned his attention to her and was “as uncompromisingly brutal in his assault of Grace as he was in his assault of Barnaby”, Mr Khalil said. Calocane admitted killing Grace, Barnaby and school caretaker Ian Coates on the basis of diminished responsibility, a plea which the Crown Prosecution Service has accepted. Image: (L-R) Ian Coates, Barnaby Webber, Grace O’Malley-Kumar Ms O’Malley-Kumar’s parents today called for her to be awarded the George Cross, an award recognising “the greatest heroism or of the most …

Red Cross decides against suspending Russian branch despite links to Kremlin war machine | Russia

Red Cross decides against suspending Russian branch despite links to Kremlin war machine | Russia

Published by skeptic

The International Red Cross movement has decided not to suspend membership of the Russian Red Cross (RRC), despite potential breaches of neutrality regulations brought to light by an investigation by a group of international media outlets, including the Guardian. Research showed what appeared to be numerous violations of the Red Cross charter by the Russian organisation since the launch of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), an umbrella body of national societies, has the power to suspend members that violate Red Cross principles of neutrality and independence, and did so to the Belarusian chapter last year. However, after a four-day meeting of IFRC officials in Geneva, the decision was made not to suspend the RRC, but only to create an oversight body and ask the RRC to “address identified challenges and alleged breaches” of integrity. The move was quickly criticised by Ukrainian officials as a weak response to serious allegations. “The IFRC has become an advocate for the RRC, and thus for …