Latest Updates

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  Religious nationalism narrows over time and props up authoritarian rule, advocates say

  Religious nationalism tends to exclude more people the longer it holds power and often serves authoritarian governments, panelists told the Global Religious Freedom Gathering in Dallas on Sept. 29. They also acknowledged that growing debate over Christian nationalism in the United States complicates American efforts to confront the problem abroad.

  5 min read

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  Congolese cyclist dies during 14,000-kilometer African journey for peace

  A 23-year-old Congolese cyclist who set out on a 14,000-kilometer journey across Africa to promote peace has died in a road crash in the Republic of Congo, ending an expedition that had taken him thousands of kilometers from his home in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

  4 min read

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  Swiss conference in Basel to address global poverty amid funding and aid cuts

  More than 800 million people worldwide continue to live in extreme poverty despite global development targets, while the challenges are compounded by rising conflicts, disasters and cuts in international aid, including in Switzerland.

  1 min read

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  Pope Leo warns against 'false compassion' as assisted dying laws spread

  Pope Leo XIV told sick pilgrims and health care workers in Lourdes, France, on Sunday (Sept. 27) that they "must reject the temptation to cause death under the guise of false compassion," Vatican News reported.

  3 min read

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  Africa’s largest Pentecostal church repatriates 500 Nigerians from South Africa amid xenophobic attacks

  The Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) has begun a humanitarian operation to bring at least 500 Nigerians back home from South Africa.

  3 min read

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  Probe ties brother of Pakistani cleric stripped of Lambeth award to blasphemy network

  A British newspaper investigation alleging that the brother of Pakistan Ulema Council (PUC) Chairman Hafiz Muhammad Tahir Mahmood Ashrafi is connected to a network accused of using Pakistan’s blasphemy laws to abduct, torture and extort people has raised fresh questions about Ashrafi’s own defense of his brother and the Church of Pakistan’s decision to endorse him as an advocate for religious harmony.

  6 min read

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  Global evangelical body presses Israel at UN to stop settler violence in West Bank

  The World Evangelical Alliance urged Israel on Tuesday to rein in settler violence and halt settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank, telling the U.N. Human Rights Council it was particularly concerned about Taybeh, which the group described as the territory's last predominantly Christian village.

  3 min read