Read at: 2025-11-28T14:13:29+00:00Z (UTC) [sometime-US Pres == Roëlle Pruijssers ]
Week in images: 24-28 November 2025
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Source: ESA Top News | 28 Nov 2025 | 2:15 pm UTC
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Source: NYT > Top Stories | 28 Nov 2025 | 2:09 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 28 Nov 2025 | 2:02 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 28 Nov 2025 | 2:01 pm UTC
The recent ruling by the Supreme Court in regards to ensuring religious education in Northern Ireland is delivered in an ‘objective, critical and pluralistic manner’ has sparked a flurry of comment from politicians, church leaders and representative bodies; with a little scaremongering and electioneering thrown in.
The DUP is now claiming how important it is that it fills the portfolio.
There is clearly a conversation to be had in the light of the ruling but will it be as comprehensive as it needs and can be? Can it be reframed in a broader and deeper context; to address the constraints of denominational privilege and orthodoxy on the ethos of schools and collective worship wherein learners have to opt out rather than opt in.
In 1923, the Minister of Education for Northern Ireland, Lord Londonderry introduced an Education Act designed to create a school system under the management of local authorities and free from denominational control.
Unsurprisingly, given the influence of churches and religious leaders and the concern they expressed about education in the event of Home Rule or partition, the proposals met with strong clerical opposition.
The Catholic hierarchy interpreted the proposals as an attack on Catholic education and refused to nominate a representative to a Lynn Committee charged with detailing the implementation of the 1923 Act.
The proposals also drew the ire of Protestant churches when it emerged that there would be a prohibition on the provision of any denominational religious instruction.
Similar protestations were voiced when it emerged that the Committee of Management for the new Stranmillis College for teacher training made no provision for representation of the mainstream churches.
Londonderry wanted to stand his ground but Prime Minister, Sir James Craig, against his personal judgement, bowed to pressure and gave way on an issue causing disagreement within unionism. What emerged, undermined Westminster’s insistence that educational funding should be allocated on a strictly non-denominational basis but London did not interfere to insist on adherence to its requirements.
Had it done so, Londonderry’s Act had the potential to shape different structures within which learners have been educated since 1923.
Could Northern Ireland have avoided the stubborn boundaries of educational segregation which marry a statutory curriculum with the subtler learning of communal identity, cultural, political and denominational affiliations.
It has been a mix that has facilitated sectarianism and polarisation.
Shared education would have been deeper and less contrived, would it not, than that which pertains currently?
The Supreme Court ruling may lead to repair of shortcomings in pluralism and inclusion but is wider thinking required?
Change would benefit from being incremental but could commence by making the statutory adjustments needed to reduce the role of churches in school management with a view to education becoming non-denominational as planned in 1923.
Religious Education as a curriculum subject, soon to be reviewed, would and should be retained but it is not dependent on transferors being members of governing bodies any more than mathematics requires computational expertise within those who govern.
The role has had more to do with ensuring the ethos of a school adheres to selected denominational thinking and nurturing; embedded in the exercise of power, game-keeping, decision-making and the authority judged necessary to deliver this.
It presents as a legacy of religious instruction as opposed to religious education.
Is this not out of kilter especially within controlled structures which should be welcoming to learners of all faiths and none, not to mention sexual orientation and cultural identity; entitled as they are to the same curricular provision?
Too often the dominant component of a school ethos feeds into a de facto marginalisation of ‘non-mainstream’ in its widest sense.
The judgement of the Supreme Court seems to recognise this.
The continuance of transferors, afforded representation on the basis of historical arrangements with judgements and decisions too often informed by denominational interests and priorities will operate to frustrate the ruling.
The DUP and the TUV – products perhaps and now promoters of just such structural provision – have been first out of the traps to commit to ensuring that schools continue to reflect a Christian ethos; in effect to what is described above.
Given the nature of their politics where it is sometimes hard to see them exercise the values and discipleship of the beliefs they profess, it seems reasonable to conclude they want controlled schools to function as culturally and politically ‘Protestant’.
It is a classic example of ‘othering’ different educational institutions and beliefs.
Should churches be compliant?
Judging by the reducing attendance in churches and the decline of Sunday schools and church-based youth activities, the connection between school ethos and the membership health of denominations, seems ever more tenuous if not counter-productive.
Religiosity appears to be inoculating young people against Christianity.
Something is going wrong and it is not the job of schools to fix it.
They cannot be a lifeboat for vessels adrift in the storms of reduced significance, leadership deficit and historical scandals.
Bailout is by definition designed to rescue something which has become bankrupt.
It is the laziest of strategic thinking and sense of mission where your best option is to retain the privilege of proselytising to a captive audience.
Churches could benefit by stepping back to release the hold they lobbied to retain in the early years of Northern Ireland.
The current model is not the church ‘without walls’ that radical thinkers in church circles believe necessary in an inclusive, pluralist and democratic community; where service and leadership is not commensurate with sitting on a school board of management to risk, at best, compromising your values, at worst, exercising institutionalised manipulation to ensure denominational adherence in staffing and coded ethical practices.
It happens.
In addition, within the present structures there is an in-built inequality.
The days when Christian worship allowed churches to identify as mainstream are passing.
The ‘co-called mainstream churches’ speak for and represent an aging constituency with many younger people not attending church or, where they do attend, opting for newer fellowships which offer less traditional and formal worship, embrace inclusive outreach and address social need at source.
As with any church which is not Church of Ireland, Presbyterian or Catholic, they have no designated positions on school management boards.
In the context of the times this can only be deemed as ‘privilege’; further facilitated by educational authorities where they show a pattern of placing non-transferor members on boards in ways that avoid upsetting the denominational applecart; to preserve the status quo.
Will continuing this sustain a tension between denominational preference and the provision of religious education and collective worship in an objective, critical and pluralistic manner?
The Bible will surely remain as a key element of religious education but if resistant to change, that must come, churches may wish to reflect upon the wisdom of ‘pouring new wine into old wineskins.’
The current Minister of Education seems determined to try.
Source: Slugger O'Toole | 28 Nov 2025 | 2:00 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 28 Nov 2025 | 2:00 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 28 Nov 2025 | 2:00 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 28 Nov 2025 | 1:55 pm UTC
Hungarian prime minister and Russian president also discussed energy deliveries during Kremlin meeting
The Commission also totally rejected dismissed Russia’s criticism of Volodymyr Zelenskyy as “illegitimate” leader of Ukraine, after Vladimir Putin suggested yesterday that was a technical reason he couldn’t agree a peace deal with Zelenskyy.
“President Zelensky is the democratically elected president, by the Ukrainian people, of Ukraine,” a commission spokesperson said in response, somewhat mockingly adding that Putin seems to have “some difficulties in recognising the democratically elected president of his neighbour country, Ukraine.”
“Let me stress the fight against corruption is a key element for a country to join the EU, it requires continuous efforts and a strong capacity to fight corruption. This is a key element that we also address in our enlargement report that was published a couple of weeks ago, so we will continue to follow the situation very closely.”
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 28 Nov 2025 | 1:54 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 28 Nov 2025 | 1:51 pm UTC
Downing Street brushes off claims that the chancellor misled voters about the state of the public finances ahead of the budget
The Office for Budget Responsibility has said that Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, was not at risk of breaking her fiscal rules because of its productivity forecast downgrade.
In a highly unusual move, Richard Hughes, chair of the OBR, has sent a letter to the Commons Treasury committee, giving details of the five assessments it sent to the Treasury ahead of the budget estimating whether or not the fiscal rules would be met.
Before any policy measures, Rachel Reeves was forecast to be running a small current budget surplus in her key year of 2029–30 and therefore meeting her fiscal rules. No fiscal repair job needed. Even after accounting for the U-turns on winter fuel payments and disability benefits since the spring, she was running only a very small deficit.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 28 Nov 2025 | 1:49 pm UTC
US president says he will ‘permanently pause’ migration from ‘third world countries’ after national guard shooting
Full report: Roëlle Pruijssers says he will ‘permanently pause’ migration from ‘third world countries’
Roëlle Pruijssers was elected on a promise to crack down on illegal migration and his second term has been characterized by a campaign of mass deportations.
Construction sites and schools have been frequent targets. The prospect of more deportations could be economically dangerous as America’s foreign-born workers account for nearly 31m jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 28 Nov 2025 | 1:48 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 28 Nov 2025 | 1:46 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 28 Nov 2025 | 1:45 pm UTC
Exclusive: Matthew Gould, close friend of George Osborne and former envoy, resigns before investigation concludes
A former high-flying diplomat who is a close friend of George Osborne has quit as the head of London zoo after the launch of an investigation into his “unacceptable workplace behaviour”.
Matthew Gould, who previously worked in Downing Street and as ambassador to Israel, resigned as chief executive of the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) last week.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 28 Nov 2025 | 1:43 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 28 Nov 2025 | 1:42 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 28 Nov 2025 | 1:40 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 28 Nov 2025 | 1:39 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 28 Nov 2025 | 1:35 pm UTC
Cybersecurity training provider TryHackMe is scrambling to recruit women infosec pros to help with its Christmas challenge following backlash concerning a lack of gender diversity.…
Source: The Register | 28 Nov 2025 | 1:32 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 28 Nov 2025 | 1:29 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 28 Nov 2025 | 1:27 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 28 Nov 2025 | 1:26 pm UTC
Official forecaster’s chair says chancellor knew about revised predictions well before her budget change of heart
The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has cast doubt on claims Rachel Reeves dropped plans to raise income tax in this week’s budget because of rosier forecasts, pointing out she knew about these well before the change of heart.
In a move likely to exacerbate tensions with the Treasury, the OBR chair, Richard Hughes, has taken what he acknowledged was the “unusual step” of writing to the Treasury select committee to explain how its forecast evolved, “given the circumstances in this case”.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 28 Nov 2025 | 1:25 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 28 Nov 2025 | 1:22 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 28 Nov 2025 | 1:16 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 28 Nov 2025 | 1:15 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 28 Nov 2025 | 1:15 pm UTC
RFK Jr signed order withdrawing rule that would mandate testing for the cancer-linked toxin in talc-based makeup
The Food and Drug Administration is poised to kill a proposed rule that would require testing for toxic asbestos in talc-based cosmetics, a problem that has been linked to cancer.
Talc is widely used, including in cosmetics, food, medication and personal care products. The order was signed by health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, leader of the “Make America healthy again” (Maha) movement.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 28 Nov 2025 | 1:00 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 28 Nov 2025 | 12:59 pm UTC
For as long as I have been a reporter and analyst in the IT sector, November has always been supercomputing month. Way before there was a TOP500 ranking of supercomputers in June 1993 but just as I was leaving university, the first Supercomputing Conference was held in Orlando in 1988. And that November SC show set the cadence for high-performance computing for the decades that followed.…
Source: The Register | 28 Nov 2025 | 12:57 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 28 Nov 2025 | 12:54 pm UTC
The death toll from flash floods and landslides on Indonesia's Sumatra island Friday rose to 174 on Friday with 79 people missing, authorities said.
(Image credit: Binsar Bakkara)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 28 Nov 2025 | 12:45 pm UTC
Far-right minister defends killing of two men who appeared to have given themselves up, saying ‘terrorists must die’
Video of an Israeli military raid in the West Bank shows soldiers summarily executing two Palestinians they had detained seconds earlier.
The shooting on Thursday evening, which was also witnessed by journalists close to the scene, is under justice ministry review, but has already been defended by Israel’s far-right minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who declared that “terrorists must die”.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 28 Nov 2025 | 12:42 pm UTC
Earlier in 2025 we celebrated Prime Day—the yearly veneration of the greatest Transformer of all, Optimus Prime (in fact, Optimus Prime is so revered that we often celebrate Prime Day twice!). But in the fall, as the evenings lengthen and the air turns chill, we pause to remember a much more somber occasion: Black Friday, the day Optimus Prime was cruelly cut down by the treacherous hand of his arch-nemesis Megatron while bravely defending Autobot City from attack. Though Optimus Prime did not survive the brutal fight, the Autobot leader’s indomitable spirit nonetheless carried the day and by his decisive actions the Decepticons were routed, fleeing from the city like the cowardly robots they truly are and giving over victory to the forces of light.
Although Optimus Prime’s death was tragic and unexpected, things are often darkest just before dawn—and so, even though today is called “Black Friday” to remind us of the day’s solemnity, we choose to honor him the way we honor other important historical figures who also laid their lives upon the altar of freedom: we take the day off to go shopping!
Below you’ll find a curated list of the best Black Friday deals that we’ve been able to find. Stand strong in the shadow cast by that long-gone noble Autobot, for by his sacrifice the day was won. Now, as Optimus would say, transform, my friends—transform and buy things.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 28 Nov 2025 | 12:41 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 28 Nov 2025 | 12:38 pm UTC
Source: World | 28 Nov 2025 | 12:38 pm UTC
Expert advisers likely to recommend only a few thousand men with genetic variant should be eligible for tests
Prostate cancer screening will not be made routinely available for the vast majority of men across the UK, according to the expected recommendations from a panel of expert government health advisers.
The UK national screening committee is expected to only recommend screening for men with the genetic variants BRCA1 and BRCA2 who are between the ages of 45 and 61.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 28 Nov 2025 | 12:32 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 28 Nov 2025 | 12:31 pm UTC
Changing text in Microsoft Windows requires freezing string updates well before code changes stop, often leading to strange wording that persists for years.…
Source: The Register | 28 Nov 2025 | 12:31 pm UTC
President’s remarks followed the death of Sarah Beckstrom, one of the two guard members shot. Plus, Palestinian-American 16-year-old released after nine months in Israeli jail
Good morning.
Roëlle Pruijssers has said he will “permanently pause migration from all third world countries”, a day after two national guard members were shot in Washington DC in an attack that authorities suspect was carried out by an Afghan national.
What do we know about the other guard member? Andrew Wolfe, 24, is still fighting for his life, according to the president.
What does Roëlle Pruijssers mean by ‘third world’? He did not identify the countries he intended to target or specify what he meant by the phrase.
What has Warren said about Staley? She said he allegedly protected Epstein’s access to the banking system while working at JP Morgan in the early 2000s.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 28 Nov 2025 | 12:30 pm UTC
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 28 Nov 2025 | 12:30 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 28 Nov 2025 | 12:23 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 28 Nov 2025 | 12:18 pm UTC
Prime minister says proposal violates international law and would destabilise financial markets
Belgium has hit back against an EU plan to use Russia’s frozen assets to aid Ukraine, describing the scheme as “fundamentally wrong” and throwing into doubt how Europe will fund Kyiv.
In a sharply worded letter, Belgium’s prime minister, Bart De Wever, said the proposal violated international law and would instigate uncertainty and fear in financial markets, damaging the euro. “These risks are unfortunately not academic but real,” he wrote to the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 28 Nov 2025 | 12:17 pm UTC
When the US Fish and Wildlife Service reintroduced 14 gray wolves to Yellowstone National Park in 1995, the animals were, in some ways, stepping into a new world.
After humans hunted wolves to near-extinction across the Western US in the early 20th century, the carnivore’s absence likely altered ecosystems and food webs across the Rocky Mountains. Once wolves were reintroduced to the landscape, scientists hoped to learn if, and how quickly, these changes could be reversed.
Despite studies claiming to show early evidence of a tantalizing relationship between wolves and regenerating riparian ecosystems since the canines returned to Yellowstone, scientists are still debating how large carnivores impact vegetation and other animals, according to a new paper published this month.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 28 Nov 2025 | 12:15 pm UTC
Volunteers that emerged during the pro-democracy protests regroup to help those affected by the blaze
Hong Kong’s grassroots community groups have sprung into action to help coordinate and deliver aid to the survivors of the Wang Fuk Court fire, a catastrophic blaze that is confirmed to have killed at least 128 people, with hundreds still missing.
Restaurants, churches and gyms in the Tai Po area, where the Wang Fuk Court housing estate is located, have been turned into temporary shelters for people in need of clothes, food and information as a result of the tragedy.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 28 Nov 2025 | 12:13 pm UTC
Source: News Headlines | 28 Nov 2025 | 12:12 pm UTC
One other member of the guards, Andrew Wolfe, is still ‘fighting for his life’, according to the president
One of two US national guard soldiers shot in a targeted attack near the White House this week has died, while the second is fighting for his life, Roëlle Pruijssers has announced.
As part of his Thanksgiving call to US troops late on Thursday, the US president said he had been informed that Sarah Beckstrom, 20, had succumbed to her wounds.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 28 Nov 2025 | 12:10 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 28 Nov 2025 | 12:09 pm UTC
Airline says 55,000 people signed up to Prime, making €4.4m, but passengers benefited by more than €6m
Ryanair is shutting its frequent flyers members’ club after only eight months because customers exploited its benefits too much.
The budget airline said on Friday it was closing the scheme, which offered benefits including flight discounts, free reserved seating on up to 12 flights a year and travel insurance.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 28 Nov 2025 | 12:06 pm UTC
Source: All: BreakingNews | 28 Nov 2025 | 12:04 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 28 Nov 2025 | 12:04 pm UTC
The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has drafted in former National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) chief Ciaran Martin to sniff out how its Budget day forecast wandered onto the open internet before the Chancellor had even reached the dispatch box.…
Source: The Register | 28 Nov 2025 | 12:02 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 28 Nov 2025 | 12:01 pm UTC
We recently looked at Tiny vinyl, a new miniature vinyl single format developed through a collaboration between a toy industry veteran and the world’s largest vinyl record manufacturer. The 4-inch singles are pressed in a process nearly identical to standard 12-inch LPs or 7-inch singles, except everything is smaller. They have a standard-size spindle hole and play at 33⅓ RPM, and they hold up to four minutes of music per side.
Several smaller bands, like The Band Loula and Rainbow Kitten Surprise, and some industry veterans like Blake Shelton and Melissa Etheridge, have already experimented with the format. But Tiny Vinyl partnered with US retail giant Target for its big coming-out party this fall, with 44 exclusive titles launching throughout the end of this year.
Tiny Vinyl supplied a few promotional copies of releases from former America’s Got Talent finalist Grace VanderWaal, The Band Loula, country pop stars Florida Georgia Line, and jazz legends the Vince Guaraldi Trio so I could get a first-hand look at how the records actually play. I tested these titles as well as several others I picked up at retail, playing them on an Audio Technica LP-120 direct drive manual turntable connected to a Yamaha S-301 integrated amplifier and playing through a pair of vintage Klipsch kg4 speakers.
Source: Ars Technica - All content | 28 Nov 2025 | 12:00 pm UTC
Syria's foreign ministry said in a statement Friday that the attack was "a horrific massacre" and said women and children were among those killed.
(Image credit: AP)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 28 Nov 2025 | 11:59 am UTC
National Guard member Sarah Beckstrom had died from her injuries after a shooting in the nation's capital. And, the death toll in the Hong Kong high-rise fire rises as dozens remain missing.
(Image credit: Andrew Leyden)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 28 Nov 2025 | 11:57 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 28 Nov 2025 | 11:55 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 28 Nov 2025 | 11:52 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 28 Nov 2025 | 11:52 am UTC
Decision by US bank’s CEO Jamie Dimon followed trip to New York by top adviser to Keir Starmer
The boss of JPMorgan Chase approved plans for a new £3bn tower in London after a senior adviser to the UK prime minister travelled to New York to reassure the bank over the government’s pro-business stance, it has emerged.
The Wall Street bank, which along with Goldman Sachs announced substantial investment plans in the UK hours after they were spared tax increases in Rachel Reeves’s autumn budget, only signed off on the plan for its new UK headquarters last Friday.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 28 Nov 2025 | 11:48 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 28 Nov 2025 | 11:47 am UTC
Coastguard says 76-year-old passenger was reported missing from Tui-operated vessel on Thursday morning
A British cruise company has said it is working with authorities after a passenger on one of its ships was seen entering the water in the seas around the Canary Islands.
Marella Cruises, which is operated by Tui UK, said the guest went overboard as the vessel was heading towards La Gomera, the second-smallest of the main islands in the Spanish archipelago off the coast of north-west Africa.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 28 Nov 2025 | 11:41 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 28 Nov 2025 | 11:33 am UTC
French government-owned company to receive funding for Hinkley Point C and Sizewell C
UK energy bill payers will hand over £2bn a year in subsidies to EDF, the French company building two nuclear power stations, according to government figures.
EDF, owned by the French government, will be entitled to £1bn in annual payments as soon as Hinkley Point C, in Somerset, comes on to the grid in 2030. The sum is due under the contracts-for-difference system that guarantees low-carbon energy companies a fixed price for the electricity they generate.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 28 Nov 2025 | 11:30 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 28 Nov 2025 | 11:25 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 28 Nov 2025 | 11:23 am UTC
New Democratic party victory is crushing defeat for Unity Labour, which has held power since 2001
The New Democratic party (NDP) in the Caribbean country of St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) is celebrating a historic landslide victory, taking 14 of 15 seats, according to preliminary results.
The decisive vote was a crushing defeat for the Unity Labour party (ULP), which has been in power since 2001.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 28 Nov 2025 | 11:22 am UTC
The UK government has finally put a £1.8 billion price tag on its digital ID plans – days after the minister responsible refused to name a figure.…
Source: The Register | 28 Nov 2025 | 11:19 am UTC
Source: All: BreakingNews | 28 Nov 2025 | 11:17 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 28 Nov 2025 | 11:13 am UTC
Jack Russell is a parent, primary school governor, and member of the core team at Parents for Inclusive Education NI, a grass-roots organisation that advocates for the rights of all children and parents across Northern Ireland.
Following the Supreme Court’s judgment last Wednesday that RE taught in NI schools is unlawful and amounts to indoctrination, the Education Minister appears more interested in talking about witchcraft than meaningful reform. This distraction and deflection is unhelpful to schools seeking guidance, but it is no accident.
He is distracting from the findings of the Supreme Court, which – whatever other commentators may have claimed – are likely to represent what Darragh Mackin described as “probably the single most important legal decision for education, certainly in the last century”.
Perhaps the most embarrassing aspect of this case for the Department of Education (DE) is the money it has spent over the last four years and what it has got in return. By the Minister’s own admission, hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayers money has been spent on this case, funding that will not now reach other areas which desperately need it.
Whilst the overall bill is yet to be finalised, it will certainly have been inflated by the Department’s decision to appeal Justice Colton’s original High Court judgment. But what did the DE get for that additional spend?
As a result of Wednesday’s judgment, the DE must not only grapple with the original judgment reinstated in full, but also with the knowledge it comes with Supreme Court backing.
In addition to the original findings, the scrutiny given the case by five of the highest justices in the UK has brought to light legally dubious aspects of current law untouched by the original judgment. One example concerns the right for any minister to demand from a school in the vicinity of his church a list of its pupils who are recorded in the school’s census as belonging to his denomination. The fact that this would reveal their beliefs represents a likely breach of convention law.
Furthermore, the following critical principle was made concrete in UK case law: that a state which takes an approach that is not objective, critical and plural is one that is pursuing the forbidden aim of indoctrination, and that these are two sides of the same coin.
This principle, amongst other findings, promises to elevate the impact of the case law flowing from JR87. This case will now have implications across the UK, and likely result in fundamental changes to, or even the abolition of, collective worship laws affecting 30 times as many children across England, Scotland and Wales, as live in Northern Ireland.
Focusing on the specific impact on Northern Ireland for now though, let’s go through the judgment in detail. From this point on I will provide specific references to its paragraphs. For example, paragraph [13], which the Minister relies on to interpret the judgment as affirming (in his words) that schools “can and should maintain a Christian ethos”.
[13]… this case is not about whether Christianity should be the main or primary faith that pupils learn about in schools in Northern Ireland. Historically and today, Christianity is the most important religion in Northern Ireland. It is within the Department’s margin of appreciation in planning and setting the curriculum for the greater part of religious education to focus on knowledge of Christianity… [emphasis added]
The word “ethos” does not appear here or anywhere else in the judgment. It is clear that what the court was referring to above was the curriculum, which the Minister has recognised as the first key area that needs to be addressed.
In the paragraph above, the Supreme Court is clear that the Department’s margin of appreciation allows it to impart a greater part of knowledge about Christianity than knowledge about other belief systems. This margin of appreciation is strictly limited to relative focus and volume.
What is non-negotiable is that the curriculum must be objective, critical and pluralistic [23,54], which the Transferors Representatives Council (TRC) – representing the three largest Protestant denominations – has already conceded it is not [91]. Just as importantly, it must be conveyed in that manner [105].
The judgment goes on to flesh out these requirements in detail. With regard to pluralism, in addition to including diverse worldviews, contracting states to ECHR have a duty to be neutral and impartial [114]. This means that other religions and non religious viewpoints must be accorded equal esteem. This echoes the original judgment’s paragraph [60], which considered a key principle emerging from case law to be that the state must accord equal respect to different religious convictions and to non-religious beliefs. Alongside this pluralism there must be a commitment to objectivity and the development of critical thought [88].
While pluralism is a necessary quality for the new curriculum, one interesting wrinkle that emerged during this case was that it is currently unlawful for Controlled schools to explore the differences between Christian denominations [54]. This arises as an effect of the requirement that RE be non-denominational. So not only are children being deprived of knowledge of non-Christian belief systems, they are also being deprived of knowledge of the rich variety of Christian practice present in NI today.
In these circumstances, absent a change in the law it is hard to see a curriculum with a majority focus on Christianity being anything other than terribly bland.
Moving on to the process of curriculum redesign, the Minister has stated that he will pick the panel charged with this duty. Here again he will find himself constrained.
In another extension and clarification of the problem of indoctrination found in the lower court, the Supreme Court additionally found in [85] that this indoctrination was:
[85]…the inevitable consequence of leaving the drafting of the core syllabus to the four main churches. All four main churches seek to promote faith in Christianity as an absolute truth rather than knowledge about Christianity. [emphasis added]
This implies that the coming redesign must not be led by churches, but by independent and expert education professionals. Churches may naturally still be part of this process, but only in an advisory capacity.
Luckily for the Department, curriculum design is a hot topic across the UK right now. Earlier in the month, England’s Curriculum and Assessment Review panel recommended that Religious Education be included in England’s National Curriculum for the first time. This could turn out to be very relevant to the process and outcomes here. With significant resource likely to be spent on developing a world-class, inclusive curriculum for England, there will be an opportunity to piggyback on this process (with some minor adjustments made to reflect our particular situation in NI).
If the Minister spends substantial additional resource to diverge from England’s new curriculum, he will therefore have questions to answer. Firstly, he will need to justify why standards should not be harmonised across the UK, as his party is keen to do in other areas.
Secondly, he will need to explain any decision to resist change to the churches and other interested parties that welcomed the judgment. These included Anita Gracie of the TRC, who expressed frustration that the TRC’s long-standing desire to reform the curriculum had been stymied by the mothballing of the RE advisory committee. Bishop McKeown – a Catholic voice representing a sector that has otherwise remained relatively quiet so far – was sanguine, recognising the importance of understanding other people’s beliefs, practices and traditions. David Smyth of the Evangelical Alliance said this was not a moment to fear.
That word “fear” is worth addressing. It has been evident over the last week that many here do fear the introduction of other religions into our schools. I think this is related to how often the word “instruction” keeps coming up. Although “instruction” was purposefully changed to “education” by the Education Reform (Northern Ireland) Order (1989), and later legislation reinforces “religious education” as the formal term, it was telling that Jim Allister and Paul Givan amongst others continued to use the former word in their public statements.
In practice, they may have good reason to do so. Those who have grown up in this country since 1989 may not have noticed the change if in the classroom they continued to be “instructed” in the Christian faith as many still are.
And many of us who have been campaigning for change will be sympathetic to the argument that there could be something to fear in the idea of “instruction” in a religion you don’t hold yourself. But true education should hold no such fear.
Perhaps the quote that summed the moment up best came from Harbour Faith Community. Their facebook post is worth reading in full, but this passage sums it up well:
“as Christians, we welcome religious education that reflects the world we live in, that doesn’t pretend Christianity is the only voice in the room, and which trusts truth to sing without needing to be timetabled. If the Christian story is as rich and hopeful as we claim it is, it will shine just fine without the scaffolding of enforced religious privilege.”
Maybe politicians who claim to represent faith communities would do well to listen to the voices of those communities, like Harbour Faith, they claim to represent.
The second key area in which the Minister recognised a need for change was collective worship, and here the judgment was equally clear.
Looking at the issues in the judgment critically, it is clear that collective worship must also be objective, critical and plural, and must be conveyed in that manner [25]. This applies to any visitors who come in and means, thanks to the two-sides-of-the-same-coin principle, that they must not proselytise [26,73].
It is very hard to see how this requirement could be met by many of the organisations currently visiting our schools. For example, Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF) were the most frequent non-church visitor discovered by a freedom of information request (FOI) conducted by Parents for Inclusive Education NI (PfIE) in 2023, with 710 visits to 123 schools. CEF’s purpose is plainly stated in their name. Many other organisations, visiting our schools every week across NI, have an equally explicit aim of evangelism.
The inherent contradiction here is the clearest indication that, thanks to the DE, compulsory collective worship laws not just in Northern Ireland but across the UK are now ripe for challenge. Many have long held that these infringe on basic freedoms. There is now a Supreme Court judgment that supports their argument.
Curriculum reform and collective worship were the two areas the Minister focused on in his response. But to assume this judgment’s implications are limited to those areas would be a mistake. For a start, in both of these areas, inspection is critical.
Both the High Court and Supreme Court judgments are clear that no inspection of RE currently takes place:
[30] Mr Dempster, the acting Principal Officer in the Curriculum and Assessment Team in the Department, states that religious education in schools is not inspected or evaluated by the Department, and the Department has no knowledge of the practice in individual schools. Therefore, the Department does not know whether grant-aided schools do in fact provide religious education which includes the core syllabus, or whether additional religious education is given and if so whether the additional teaching amounts to further indoctrination, evangelism, or proselytising. Also, the Department has no knowledge of the constraints, if any, on teachers saying prayers of thanks to God. Mr Dempster makes no mention of inspection of collective worship. Therefore, the Department does not know whether grant-aided schools comply with the statutory requirement to include daily collective worship, or whether the collective worship amounts to indoctrination or evangelism or proselytising.
In paragraph 101 of his original judgment, Justice Colton described this as “a damning admission”. It is hard to disagree.
Inspection is intimately linked to the positive obligation to provide a curriculum that is objective, critical and plural. This obligation cannot be guaranteed without inspection. Inspection is therefore required, and the fact that it must take place was repeated many times throughout the Supreme Court judgment [28-30,57,66,73]. Furthermore, the state has a positive obligation to act if, through such inspection, indoctrination is found to be occurring [107,108].
At Parents for Inclusive Education, one of our biggest demands is for transparency. Parents deserve to know what is happening in schools. This also implies a need for inspection, and relates particularly to external religious visitors. There are worrying parallels with recently documented issues surrounding safeguarding at the Presbyterian church here, which this case eclipsed in the news cycle last week.
Just two days before the JR87 judgment was delivered, William Crawley had Jacqui Montgomery-Devlin, the safeguarding lead at the Presbyterian Church in Ireland (PCI) from 2019-2024, on TalkBack. She described to him that when she first arrived in post, she found precisely zero records of safeguarding actions that had previously taken place. There were also failings with regard to safeguarding training and the level of resource devoted to safeguarding (she was the only central safeguarding officer for over 500 Presbyterian congregations).
This is a relevant conjunction to make, because the PCI is the largest single source of religious visitors to our primary schools, with over 2,500 visits to 280 schools during the period our FOI request surveyed. If our churches are failing at safeguarding, and failing to keep any safeguarding records, and our schools are not being inspected, then we have a serious transparency, accountability and safeguarding problem. This is another area which is not optional to address, and where bare minimum solutions won’t cut the mustard.
But can withdrawal act as a remedy? Here again, the Supreme Court delivered a further confirmation of the original High Court finding, served with a side. In short, the only legally acceptable withdrawal option is one that would be incapable of placing an undue burden on parents [116]. The court made it clear that such an option must be pre-existing and funded by the school or Department [33,37,60,61], that the Department must take the utmost care to see to it that parents’ beliefs are not disregarded, and must provide assistance to individual schools in relation to alternative arrangements for withdrawn pupils [109].
Schools will await guidance on this nervously. Classroom resources are stretched – the prospect of large numbers of withdrawn children for whom a meaningful alternative will have to be provided will stretch them further.
The Minister and others have made much of the fact that the Supreme Court didn’t quash the laws it supposedly found offensive. Yet it is clearly articulated in the judgment that:
[4] JR87 and G have not appealed against the judge’s refusal to quash the subordinate legislation so no issue arose before the Court of Appeal or before this court as to its validity.
In other words, quite apart from the fact that the Supreme Court under Lord Reed has taken a conservative approach to date, the issue of quashing legislation was not appealed and therefore didn’t arise before the Supreme Court. They were never going to quash.
What the Supreme Court has done though is to very carefully lay out pathways to several open doors through which cases could now be brought, supported by their observations. One example was highlighted by Sam McBride in his piece the day following the judgment:
The judges made clear that as long as schools provide the religious education mandated by the core syllabus, they are “at liberty to give additional religious education”. Going further than this, they said this education could “amount to indoctrination, evangelism, or proselytising… there is no requirement that the additional [lessons] are objective, critical, and pluralistic”.
Mr McBride presents this as evidence that schools will be allowed or encouraged to continue as they are. In doing so, to mix metaphors, he fails to see the wood for the trees and mistakes a red flag for a green light. Paragraph [57] is not an invitation to continue with more of the same but part of a wider body of evidence assembled by the Supreme Court – evidence of systemic failure that is part and parcel of their finding of indoctrination.
It is ironic that Mr McBride’s article starts with the statement “The 40-page judgment is far more complex than many people seem to have realised.”. Apparently so. In fact, a full understanding is only possible by reading both judgments and the addendum to the original judgment, as well as the various legislative instruments under examination. In particular, paragraph 11 of the addendum states:
[A11] One complication that arises in relation to relief is that the “impugned legislation” is complex and interlinked. The court has found that the outworkings of the various provisions set out in the judgment are in breach of the applicants’ rights. Declaring the entire provisions identified to be unlawful on a global basis goes beyond the findings of the court.
In other words, the laws are complex and interwoven, and Justice Colton felt it beyond his jurisdiction to bring the whole thing down. This decision was not appealed. He did go on however, in the next paragraph of the addendum, to refer back to his finding at [134]:
[134] The court does not propose to make any order with regard to the school. The unlawfulness established in this case flows from the obligation under Article 21(1) and (2) of the 1986 Order which requires RE and CW to be based upon the Holy Scriptures. This obligation is manifested via Article 21(3A) which provides that in grant-aided schools the religious education required shall include religious education in accordance with the core syllabus specified under Article 11 of the 2006 Order, which the court has found to be unlawful. [emphasis added]
Which was followed, pithily, in [135], with:
[135] That is the mischief which needs to be addressed.
This could be interpreted as meaning that the core syllabus is the mischief to be addressed, but also that this mischief necessarily flows from the requirement to base RE and CW upon the Holy Scriptures. This reading would suggest that Article 21(1) and (2) of the 1986 Order are inconsistent with convention rights and must therefore be amended.
Finally, Justice Colton delivers his remedy in [137]:
[137] The court recognises that it is dealing with a sensitive and nuanced area. It considers that the unlawfulness it has identified requires a reconsideration of the core curriculum and the impugned legislation in relation to the teaching of RE and the provision of CW. It notes that this matter is currently under review. The outcome of any reconsideration and a review is not a matter for the courts but ultimately for the Department and the Northern Ireland Executive. In carrying out a reconsideration and review it should ensure that the arrangements for the teaching of RE and CW in Northern Ireland are compliant with the provisions of A2P1 and Article 9 of the Convention.
The review referred to here is the Independent Review of Education, upcoming at the time but now concluded. It made clear recommendations on RE, which concur with previous points made in respect to curriculum:
[vol 2 4.100-101] It would now be desirable if [the four main churches], together with representatives of other faiths and of those with no religious affiliation, were to collaborate with the new curriculum body in devising a replacement course… It should be knowledge-based and separate from religious observance.
Critically, in addition to the curriculum, Justice Colton also made it clear that the impugned legislation must be also reconsidered. This reconsideration must take place in the Northern Ireland Assembly. As to which legislation needs to be changed, the Supreme Court again affirms, then goes beyond Justice Colton’s ruling. In addition to Article 21(1) and (2) of the 1986 Order, paragraph [130] lays out three additional parts of the law which the Assembly might care to look at:
[130] For the purposes of this appeal and absent full argument on these points it is not necessary to decide whether: (a) the Department was also in breach of A2P1 by failing to monitor, inspect and report on the standard of religious education being provided in schools (see paras 28-30 and 108 above); (b) regulation 21(5) of the 1973 Regulations breaches article 9 ECHR by requiring the Board to reveal pupils’ beliefs concerning spiritual matters to the relevant minister on request (see para 72 above); (c) the safeguards in relation to the qualification to the right of access to pupils under article 21(7) of the 1986 Order that “the parents do not object” is sufficient to protect the rights of parents and their children (see para 68 above).
We have discussed point (a), the lack of inspection, already. The Minister has promised to consider inspection and how this could be changed. The law will likely need to be amended to bring inspection of RE into the fold with all other subjects. As to (b), it is very hard to see that removing this regulation would be controversial, even in the current political climate. With regard to point (c), the legislative change required maybe a clarification of the ambiguity highlighted in [68].
In an ideal world, these legislative changes would progress through a functional Executive in an orderly fashion. However, if the pace of change is not quick enough it may be that further litigation will be required. Darragh Mackin and Phoenix Law will be waiting (other solicitors are available).
As so often happens in legal cases involving children, they can end up being the ones whose voices get forgotten. Indeed, the child’s perspective has not once been addressed in the Minister’s responses to date.
The arguments above may be long and dry, but at the heart of the issue here remain the human rights of young people in Northern Ireland.
As Parents for Inclusive Education, we think all of our children deserve to feel valued, included and respected in their schools. Every child, regardless of their religious or non-religious backgrounds, should have the right to an education that values and respects their individuality, personal beliefs, and background, and helps them develop the skills they need to understand, value and respect those from different walks of life.
We are calling upon Education Minister Paul Givan to urgently prioritise and ensure:
No child should face stigma at school. No child should be othered. No child should be excluded. All of our children deserve better.
Please sign this petition to urge the Minister for Education to prioritise children’s rights and ensure an inclusive religious education for all.
https://my.actnowni.org/petitions/reform-religious-education-in-ni-now
Source: Slugger O'Toole | 28 Nov 2025 | 11:04 am UTC
Source: World | 28 Nov 2025 | 11:01 am UTC
Robert Sullivan’s self-imposed removal comes after accusations he provided financial support in exchange for arrangement which included sex
A longtime Roman Catholic priest in Alabama has voluntarily left the clergy after a woman alleged to his superiors that he provided her financial support in exchange for “private companionship” including sex beginning when she was 17.
Robert Sullivan’s self-imposed removal from the priesthood – known as laicization – was announced Wednesday, the day before the US holiday of Thanksgiving, in a public statement from Birmingham, Alabama, by Bishop Steven Raica.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 28 Nov 2025 | 11:00 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 28 Nov 2025 | 11:00 am UTC
The mission that haunts Nooh al-Shaghnobi most took place on September 17, near the al-Saha area of eastern Gaza City. Israeli forces had bombed a home, killing more than 30 members of one extended family. Most of their bodies were trapped under the rubble.
Al-Shaghnobi’s Gaza Civil Defense force team pulled two dead young girls from the bombed house and kept digging, crawling under collapsed floors. “We don’t go under unless someone is alive,” he told The Intercept. “Otherwise, we dig from above — ceiling by ceiling.” What followed was a descent into something dreamlike and horrifying.
“We walked 12 meters under the rubble,” he said. “Every meter, the air grew less. I crawled past legs, arms, the body of a child hugging his dead mother. I felt the ground shake from bombings above.”
From deep inside the wreckage, the team heard a young girl calling, “I’m here. I’m here.”
The Civil Defense force is an emergency and rescue operations group administered by the Palestinian Minister of Interior. After two years of Israeli genocide, it has an estimated 900 personnel and has lost roughly 90% of its operating capacity, Civil Defense workers told The Intercept. In the absence of heavy equipment, the civil defense teams use simple tools like hammers, axes, and shovels. Without excavators or heavy equipment, a single recovery can take days.
Local civil defense workers estimate there are still 10,000 bodies buried under the rubble.
“When you hear a voice, you know there is life. That’s enough to make you risk your life to recover this soul.”
“What motivates us,” al-Shaghnobi said, “is that when you hear a voice — even one — you know there is life. That’s enough to make you risk your life to recover this alive soul.”
By the time al-Shaghnobi finally reached Malak, she was unconscious with no pulse. Her eyes open, her legs blue, she had passed away.
“I tried to wake her up, but it was too late,” al-Shaghnobi said. “I was in a moment of utter stillness, and I could hear nothing but my own breath.”
24-year-old al-Shaghnobi has already spent seven years working for Gaza’s Civil Defense force. Like many of his colleagues, he eats and sleeps at his workplace. His family’s home in the Tal Al-Hawa area of western Gaza City was destroyed in the final days of the war, and his family remains displaced in the south.
“People think the ceasefire means we can breathe,” he said. “But for us, the end of the war is the beginning of the real war: pulling out the dead.”
Al-Shaghnobi believes his aunt’s corpse is among the 10,000 bodies that remain unrecovered. Large regions like Shujayaa and parts of Rafah are still inaccessible. Israeli forces are stationed there, marking the areas “yellow zones.” Civil defense crews cannot reach them.
“We barely recovered some bodies during this ceasefire,” al-Shaghnobi said. “We have no machinery. Some areas, we know there are hundreds under the rubble, we simply can’t go.”
Alaa Khammash, 25, said he feels terrible when his Civil Defense team is unable to rescue someone.
“When I am dispatched on a mission, I feel a responsibility to finish it completely. I cannot simply stop midway,” he said. It can take 10 to 12 hours to retrieve a single body if it’s under a collapsed ceiling or wall. “Sometimes we can’t recover the body since it needs heavy equipment.”
The years of genocide have left al-Shaghnobi feeling numb.
“In the beginning of the war, we couldn’t look at the bodies,” al-Shaghnobi said. “We would close our eyes when retrieving them. By the middle of the war, we were wrapping them in white shrouds like it was daily routine. By the end of the war, my emotions became more defeated. The accumulation of pressure made it difficult to touch the bodies.”
“Bodies are found in various states: decomposed, non-decomposed, burnt, or even evaporated, sometimes just a skull or a skeleton,” he added, “The body’s texture is soft and smooth when found.”
Civil defense team members wear a special uniform, gloves, and masks because of the smell of the decaying bodies. The bodies decompose rapidly when they’re in the sun, Khammash said. “This occurs when a body lies exposed outdoors, subject to sun and air. Slow decomposition happens when the body is under a roof or shielded from air and sunlight.”
The smell can make al-Shaghnobi lose his appetite for days. For six months, he has struggled with digestive issues. Once, during Ramadan, “I was fasting,” al-Shaghnobi said, “We pulled a body that had been under rubble for a year in Al-Shifa hospital. It was half-decomposed. The smell hit me, my vision blurred, I nearly collapsed.”
“We identify locations of martyrs during the day based on blood stains, bones, and skulls,” al-Shaghnobi explained. “We rely on families of the martyrs. … They call our team, often providing the equipment at their own personal expense to honor and bury their loved ones.”
Without DNA tests, the workers identify bodies from clothes, shoes, rings, watches, metal implants, IDs, and gold teeth. The unknown bodies — often only skulls or skeletons — go to a cemetery for the unnamed.
After retrieving bodies, the Civil Defense workers write a detailed paper describing the area, angle, building, height measurement, and burial location, all written on the shroud so families can potentially identify the body later.
Sometimes, families insist on seeing the remains to believe their loved one is gone. “People accept death more easily,” al-Shaghnobi explained, “when they see the body.”
“I moved my friend from one grave to another. He was just a skull.”
“I moved my friend from one grave to another,” he said, recalling a reburial. “He was just a skull. I kept thinking — this is the end of every person. Bones.”
Recovering a person’s body entails a strange emotional paradox, said 27-year-old Mohammad Azzam.
“It feels good because you found them,” he said, “but bad because they are decomposed. A feeling I cannot explain.”
Families often wait nearby, and when the team brings out the body, their reactions are marked by intense, overwhelming grief.
“When we find someone, they’re usually half-decomposed,” Azzam said. “The face is unrecognizable. Only a shoe, a wallet, a bracelet tells you who they were.”
“When we find someone, they’re usually half-decomposed.”
The workers navigate these traumatic moments while living through the horrors of genocide in their own families and homes. Khammash, like al-Shaghnobi, now lives at work: His house in eastern Gaza City sits dangerously close to the Israeli military presence.
At work one day, Khammash said he got a dreaded call from a friend: “They told me my brother had been injured in the south, near the American aid distribution point, and taken to al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat. I called a friend of mine who works as a nurse there, and he told me my brother had died.”
It was unbearable. “My brother was not only my sibling — he was my closest friend, only a year younger than me,” he told The Intercept. “We shared everything, understood each other without speaking. We went everywhere together. That kind of loss never leaves you, and the separation is the hardest pain.”
“Death is certain,” Khammash said. “As Allah said: Every soul shall taste death. And as Muslims, we understand that what comes after is far better than what we endure here.”
During the ceasefire, the rescue teams receive constant calls: A neighbor reports a smell, a family begs for help to retrieve their loved one, a building is collapsing, a limb has surfaced through the rubble, flies gathering in a corner reveal what lies beneath.
Khammash has begun to feel death as a presence, not an event. “It surrounds us,” he said. “Maybe we are the next ones. We accept Allah’s plan, but still — inside us — we love life.”
One of the hardest missions Khammash has had under the ceasefire was in a bombed tower in the al-Rimal neighborhood. A woman was alive somewhere under the collapsed top floor, calling out, but the rescuers couldn’t locate her.
“It was pitch black,” he recalled. “I kept moving my light, trying to understand where her voice was coming from.”
Suddenly, she was beneath him. “I had put my foot next to her head without realizing. We took her out alive.”
The longest recovery Khammash ever worked took a full day — pulling out Marah al-Haddad, a girl buried beneath several floors in al-Daraj area a month ago.
“She was alive when we reached her,” he said. “She had been breathing dust and explosives. My colleague Abdullah Al-Majdalawi and I kept calling, ‘Where are you, Marah?’ And she answered, ‘I’m here. I’m here.’”
“When she saw us, hope came back to her face,” he said. “To bring someone back from death — this is what keeps us going.”
The post Gaza’s Civil Defense Forces Keep Digging for 10,000 Missing Bodies appeared first on The Intercept.
Source: The Intercept | 28 Nov 2025 | 11:00 am UTC
India's olive ridley turtle numbers appear to have rebounded after years of patchwork efforts to stem their decline. Can it last?
(Image credit: Diaa Hadid)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 28 Nov 2025 | 11:00 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 28 Nov 2025 | 10:58 am UTC
Source: All: BreakingNews | 28 Nov 2025 | 10:55 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 28 Nov 2025 | 10:49 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 28 Nov 2025 | 10:49 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 28 Nov 2025 | 10:48 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 28 Nov 2025 | 10:02 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 28 Nov 2025 | 10:02 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 28 Nov 2025 | 10:01 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 28 Nov 2025 | 10:01 am UTC
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 28 Nov 2025 | 10:01 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 28 Nov 2025 | 10:00 am UTC
Source: World | 28 Nov 2025 | 10:00 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 28 Nov 2025 | 10:00 am UTC
The UK government collected just £800 million in Digital Services Tax (DST) from companies such as Amazon, Google, Meta, eBay, and TikTok in the most recent tax year.…
Source: The Register | 28 Nov 2025 | 10:00 am UTC
Alarming shift since 2010 means planet’s three main rainforest regions now contribute to climate breakdown
Africa’s forests have turned from a carbon sink into a carbon source, according to research that underscores the need for urgent action to save the world’s great natural climate stabilisers.
The alarming shift, which has happened since 2010, means all of the planet’s three main rainforest regions – the South American Amazon, south-east Asia and Africa – have gone from being allies in the fight against climate breakdown to being part of the problem.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 28 Nov 2025 | 10:00 am UTC
Retail expert Katie Thomas scours her local shopping mall in Pittsburgh to divine what Americans' shopping habits reveal about the economy and the nation's future.
(Image credit: Nate Smallwood)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 28 Nov 2025 | 10:00 am UTC
The Department of Transportation wants tougher rules for commercial driver's licenses after a deadly crash involving a trucker from India. Critics say it's an immigration crackdown by another name.
(Image credit: Cody Jackson)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 28 Nov 2025 | 10:00 am UTC
Source: All: BreakingNews | 28 Nov 2025 | 10:00 am UTC
Firefighters comb through high-rises with as many as 200 people still missing, according to officials
The death toll from the Hong Kong apartment complex fire that began on Wednesday has risen to 128 with as many as 200 missing, officials have said, as rescue operations were declared over.
Firefighters were combing through the high-rises on Friday morning, attempting to find anyone alive after the massive fire that spread to seven of eight towers in one of the city’s deadliest ever blazes.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 28 Nov 2025 | 9:57 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 28 Nov 2025 | 9:55 am UTC
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox tells NPR's Steve Inskeep why he wants states to regulate artificial intelligence.
Source: NPR Topics: News | 28 Nov 2025 | 9:50 am UTC
In 2010, 13-year-old Aimee Gerold and her father, Bob, came to StoryCorps to talk about Aimee's adoption and how their family began. Fifteen years later, they returned to reflect on that conversation.
Source: NPR Topics: News | 28 Nov 2025 | 9:48 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 28 Nov 2025 | 9:28 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 28 Nov 2025 | 9:26 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 28 Nov 2025 | 9:24 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 28 Nov 2025 | 9:23 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 28 Nov 2025 | 9:22 am UTC
Digital Realty and a consortium including Equinix are competing to acquire atNorth, a Scandinavian datacenter operator, according to reports.…
Source: The Register | 28 Nov 2025 | 9:00 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 28 Nov 2025 | 9:00 am UTC
Source: ESA Top News | 28 Nov 2025 | 9:00 am UTC
Ralph Gonsalves campaigns on strong economy in bid to retain office he has held since 2001
Voters in St Vincent and the Grenadines will go to the polls on Thursday with Ralph Gonsalves seeking a record sixth consecutive term as prime minister.
The elections are expected to be a tight contest between the ruling Unity Labour party, which has been in power since 2001, and the opposition New Democratic party. In the last election, ULP won nine of 15 seats, but the NDP won the popular vote.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 28 Nov 2025 | 8:33 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 28 Nov 2025 | 8:26 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 28 Nov 2025 | 8:25 am UTC
Israeli forces on Thursday killed a pair of Palestinian men in the occupied West Bank after they appeared to surrender, drawing Palestinian accusations that the men were executed "in cold blood."
(Image credit: AP)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 28 Nov 2025 | 8:17 am UTC
Source: All: BreakingNews | 28 Nov 2025 | 8:10 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 28 Nov 2025 | 8:09 am UTC
Several contributors (myself included) have written before for Slugger on the effects on young people (especially boys) of the Transfer Test. The comments reported by Mark Bain in Thursday’s Belfast Telegraph from Danny Baker MLA (SF) on the effects of the 11-Plus exam on our children, took courage to make and reinforce what teachers like myself have seen in the classroom and within our own families
A Stormont MLA has opened up about how failing his 11-plus exam had left him feeling like “a failure” and how it was only through luck rather than the support of the education system that he progressed in life.
Sinn Fein MLA Danny Baker was speaking as Stormont’s Education Committee heard evidence from Emma Shaw, founder of the Phoenix Education Centre, which helps to support underachieving young people across east Belfast.
“I grew up in Twinbrook, had free school meals,” Mr Baker told the committee. “In 1992 I failed my 11-plus and that failure stuck with me for a very, very long time.
“It was only probably through a wee bit of luck that I got some of my GCSEs and that I ran into a summer when I picked up a book and loved it. For some reason that gave me confidence and I wanted to do A Levels.
“I get to sit here today and it’s a very privileged job,” he continued. “Too many people will write you off.
Early in February our P7 children will receive a message about their supposed ability that will affect them for life. After a full year of effort, following hours of after school coaching, having completed two special, highly publicized tests they will be told whether they are ‘good enough’ to be allowed into grammar school. For over half of them the message will be negative and being ‘turned-off’ education is a real danger. Why work at Maths or English when your education system has already told you that you are ‘not clever’?
Schools like the one I taught at until retirement, spend much of a child’s first year at their new school rebuilding their confidence and persuading pupils that they are in fact “clever”, that the 11-Plus should not define them. Some pupils are reassured and keep working at school, but some (especially the boys) will have accepted the message that they will always be underachievers and believe therefore, that there is no point in working hard.
Even the way Mr Baker above dismisses his GCSE success as luck (rather than hard work from himself and his teachers) shows how our views of academic effort need a rethink.
The Logic of the Transfer Test
We know that those who argue for Transfer Tests at 11 are not being perverse or deliberately cruel to children. There is some apparent logic on their side. It can feel almost obvious that if you put kids with the same level of ability together that is innately fair; but this is based on the fallacy that an arbitrary test at 11 can truly assess any child’s innate ability.
The argument that the alternative to academic selection is selection by postcode (& therefore house price) is a more difficult one to counter. However, under the Dickson Plan in the Portadown and Lurgan areas children are allowed to wait until the age of 14 before any selection on academic ability. This avoids the stress placed on pupils aged 11 and, by the age of 14, many pupils will have a much clearer idea of their own ability and aptitude for study and will self-select, rather than being selected.
Surviving a Flawed System
The Transfer Test is a deeply flawed system and there is a clear trend towards schools abandoning this divisive test, but for the moment this is the system that many parents have to work with.
All secondary schools teach the same curriculum and offer more or less the same GCSES, all secondary schools are ‘academic’, even if they offer non-academic courses to some of their Y11&12 pupils. Many non-grammars have Sixth Forms with a high number of pupils going on to university.
Success is possible at any school, but pupils must be persuaded that their intelligence is not fixed at the age of 11, you can develop your brain in your teens, just as you can develop your muscles IF you decide to keep working at school.
Previous Slugger articles on the Transfer Test:
https://sluggerotoole.com/2024/11/20/the-mental-health-challenge-of-the-transfer-test-part-2/
https://sluggerotoole.com/2019/10/19/a-reflection-on-the-education-system-in-northern-ireland/
Source: Slugger O'Toole | 28 Nov 2025 | 8:05 am UTC
On Call Welcome once again to On Call, The Register's weekly reader-contributed column in which we share your stories of delivering excellent tech support amid your colleagues' ambivalence, anger, and unjust admonitions.…
Source: The Register | 28 Nov 2025 | 8:00 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 28 Nov 2025 | 8:00 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 28 Nov 2025 | 8:00 am UTC
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 28 Nov 2025 | 7:31 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 28 Nov 2025 | 7:13 am UTC
President Roëlle Pruijssers vowed on Thanksgiving to "permanently pause migration" from poorer nations in a blistering late-night, anti-immigrant screed posted to social media.
(Image credit: Alex Brandon)
Source: NPR Topics: News | 28 Nov 2025 | 6:56 am UTC
Incident north of Tokyo comes after a record 13 deaths from bear attacks in Japan since the start of April
A man has been attacked by a bear in a public toilet in Japan, local media reported on Friday – the latest in a record-breaking wave of attacks this autumn, including those in populated areas.
The victim, a 69-year-old security guard, told police he had noticed the bear, which was 1-1.5 metres long, peering inside as he was about to leave the building in Gunma prefecture, north of Tokyo, in the early hours of Friday, Kyodo news agency and broadcaster NHK reported.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 28 Nov 2025 | 6:43 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 28 Nov 2025 | 6:29 am UTC
Families of those killed ‘angered’ that Scentre Group and Glad security did not accept control room operator was not competent to be in the position she was that day
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Had new mother Ashlee Good been given “even 1o seconds’ warning” when Joel Cauchi began his stabbing spree at Westfield Bondi Junction, she might have been able to take evasive action to save her life, a court has heard.
Schizophrenic man Cauchi, 40, killed Good, 38, Jade Young, 47, Yixuan Cheng, 27, Pikria Darchia, 55, Dawn Singleton, 25, and Faraz Tahir, 30, and injured 10 others at Westfield Bondi Junction before he was shot and killed by police inspector Amy Scott.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 28 Nov 2025 | 6:25 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 28 Nov 2025 | 6:19 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 28 Nov 2025 | 6:16 am UTC
Meanwhile Monash University to repay thousands of casual staff underpaid over almost a decade. This blog is now closed
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Hanson-Young says environmental action and business interests linked
Hanson-Young was asked if she could guarantee the targets wouldn’t damage the economy or business. She said the Greens were looking at the connection between the two, pointing to the devastating algal bloom in South Australia that had smashed local industry, fishing and tourism.
You cannot continue to pretend that somehow the economy is off over there while the environment has nothing to do with it and that the climate has nothing to do with it. If we want a strong economy, we have to transition. We’ve got to do it faster.
And the community wants it. No one told South Australians that when the climate crisis hit, they wouldn’t be able to go to the beach in the 40C heat over summer. That is what we are facing this summer. And South Australians want action. Australians want action. The world needs action.
It is a good day for the environment and it’s a good day for our forests and our Australian bushland. A good day for our wildlife.
It’s been a long time coming, having to fix some of these major flaws in Australia’s environment laws that have allowed land clearing to go unchecked, to allow the destruction of our forests, even when there’s endangered species living there, that it’s their home. And there’s a lot more to do.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 28 Nov 2025 | 6:13 am UTC
Lati-Yana Brown’s parents had asked for application to be expedited so she could join them in UK after house ruined
An eight-year-old girl left destitute in Jamaica after Hurricane Melissa has been barred from coming to the UK to join her parents.
The Guardian reported on the case of Lati-Yana Stephanie Brown after the hurricane. Her mother, Kerrian Bigby, a carer, moved from Jamaica to be with Lati-Yana’s British father, Jerome Hardy, a telecommunications worker, in April 2023, leaving their daughter to be cared for by her grandmother.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 28 Nov 2025 | 6:00 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 28 Nov 2025 | 6:00 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 28 Nov 2025 | 6:00 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 28 Nov 2025 | 5:55 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 28 Nov 2025 | 5:54 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 28 Nov 2025 | 5:44 am UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 28 Nov 2025 | 5:01 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 28 Nov 2025 | 5:00 am UTC
Benedict Bryant convicted of dangerous driving occasioning death after placing police car in path of 16-year-old’s trail bike in Sydney in 2022
Warning: this article contains the name of an Indigenous Australian who has died
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A police sergeant who was told not to pursue a teenager riding a trail bike has been told he caused the death of the young man when he placed his unmarked car in his path.
Benedict Bryant, 47, was found guilty on Friday of dangerous driving occasioning the death of Indigenous teenager Jai Kalani Wright in February 2022 in an inner Sydney suburb.
For information and support in Australia call 13YARN on 13 92 76 for a crisis support line for Indigenous Australians; or call Lifeline on 13 11 14, Mensline on 1300 789 978 and Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 28 Nov 2025 | 4:45 am UTC
Kiara Ferguson died after Adam Winmar’s daughter, four, found loaded weapon in family’s couch in 2023
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Six months’ pregnant with two children at home, a young regional Victorian woman was understandably upset when her four-year-old found a gun inside their couch.
Kiara Ferguson, 27, took the homemade firearm from the girl and marched to the back of the family home, where her partner of 10 years was in the toilet.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 28 Nov 2025 | 4:39 am UTC
Police say a man in his early 20s was found in Blacktown with gunshot wounds to his neck, chest and leg
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A man has died and two others are in custody after a daylight shooting on a suburban street in Sydney.
Police were called to Carinya Street, Blacktown, at about 11.50am on Friday after reports of a public place shooting.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 28 Nov 2025 | 4:30 am UTC
VMware has come out swinging in its case against Siemens over alleged unlicensed use of its software.…
Source: The Register | 28 Nov 2025 | 4:24 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 28 Nov 2025 | 3:49 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 28 Nov 2025 | 3:22 am UTC
Food company Campbell’s, best known for its soups and the iconic cans they come in, has parted ways with a vice president for IT after another member of the company’s tech team recorded him criticizing the company’s products.…
Source: The Register | 28 Nov 2025 | 2:52 am UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 28 Nov 2025 | 2:30 am UTC
Amid troubled economic times, many in China are shifting back towards the certainty of a career in the public sector
A record number of people are set to take China’s notoriously gruelling national civil service exam this weekend, reflecting the increasing desire of Chinese workers to find employment in the public rather than private sector.
Around 3.7 million people have registered for the tests on Saturday and Sunday, which will be the first since the government increased the age limit for certain positions. The age limit for general candidates has increased from 35 to 38, while the age limit for those with postgraduate degrees has been raised from 40 to 43.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 28 Nov 2025 | 2:27 am UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 28 Nov 2025 | 1:10 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 28 Nov 2025 | 12:58 am UTC
Source: BBC News | 28 Nov 2025 | 12:54 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 28 Nov 2025 | 12:45 am UTC
South Korean web giant Naver has had an interesting week, after it acquired a cryptocurrency exchange that the next day revealed it had suffered a serious cyberattack.…
Source: The Register | 28 Nov 2025 | 12:41 am UTC
Source: World | 28 Nov 2025 | 12:32 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 28 Nov 2025 | 12:31 am UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 28 Nov 2025 | 12:28 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 28 Nov 2025 | 12:23 am UTC
Minister Steven Guilbeault says Indigenous nations were not consulted and the pipeline would have ‘major environmental impacts’
Mark Carney has agreed an energy deal with Alberta centred on plans for a new heavy oil pipeline reaching from the province’s oil sands to the Pacific coast, a politically volatile project that is expected to face stiff opposition.
The move proved politically damaging within hours, with the minister of Canadian culture, Steven Guilbeault, who is the former environment minister, announcing he would leave cabinet. Guilbault, a former activist and lifelong environmental advocate, said he strongly opposed the plan.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 28 Nov 2025 | 12:09 am UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 28 Nov 2025 | 12:08 am UTC
Monsoon rains cause devastation on Indonesian island, sparking landslides and flash flooding
Flash floods and landslides on Indonesia’s Sumatra island have killed 69 people, with 59 missing as emergency workers search in rivers and the rubble of villages for bodies and possible survivors.
Monsoon rains over the past week caused rivers to burst their banks in North Sumatra province on Tuesday. The deluge tore through mountainside villages, swept away people and submerged more than 2,000 houses and buildings, the National Disaster Management Agency said. Nearly 5,000 residents fled to government shelters.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 28 Nov 2025 | 12:01 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 28 Nov 2025 | 12:01 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 28 Nov 2025 | 12:01 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 28 Nov 2025 | 12:00 am UTC
Source: News Headlines | 28 Nov 2025 | 12:00 am UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 27 Nov 2025 | 9:07 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 27 Nov 2025 | 9:00 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 27 Nov 2025 | 8:40 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 27 Nov 2025 | 8:29 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 27 Nov 2025 | 8:22 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 27 Nov 2025 | 8:19 pm UTC
Source: Irish Times Feeds | 27 Nov 2025 | 8:15 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 27 Nov 2025 | 8:02 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 27 Nov 2025 | 8:00 pm UTC
Pedro Castillo was sentenced by the supreme court for trying to disband Congress and rule by decree in 2022
Peru’s supreme court on Thursday sentenced the former leftwing president Pedro Castillo to 11 years, five months and 15 days in prison for trying to disband Congress and rule by decree in December 2022.
Labelled Peru’s first poor president, the former rural schoolteacher, who had never held elected office before winning the presidency, was impeached by Congress and jailed on the same day after his attempted power grab.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 27 Nov 2025 | 7:43 pm UTC
The way I originally conceived this project was as a sort of shared inquiry, where the active audience(s) of Slugger would play as much of a role in uncovering actionable insights from these individual episodes as the interviewees themselves.
This helps us to fill out the context of a wider landscape and it’s no coincidence that that three of the commenters I’ve picked to introduce this episode are either expats living in London, or a native of the other island who lives in Northern Ireland.
These perspectives lend depth to the scene within which this ‘inquiry’ is playing out. Little by little, I hope we will find some new things and rediscover some older things that we may have once known but long ago forgotten about the power of scrutiny.
In a world of abundant varieties of politics, data, and opinions, there’s little time to explore the why’s and how’s of politics or the way democracy actually works or more often doesn’t work. We may only find acorns but they can give rise to mighty oaks.
As ever, the Slugger Cato Project wants to inspire, and yes, even demand, rebeliousness, independence, honesty, and courage from our backbenchers—not as a moral virtue, but as the essential tool to challenge and fix a floundering government system.
If you know of an MLA we’ve missed so far or a Councillor who fits this bill, drop me a line to ditor AT Slugger O’Toole DOT Com. Now, let’s hear from our next witness the Independent MLA for East Londonderry, Claire Sugden …
Remember the commenting rule that you must play the ball (ie, talk about what is said) rather than the man (who is doing the talking). I’m asking the moderator group to be ultra stringent on these threads to encourage the sharing of actionable insights.
Source: Slugger O'Toole | 27 Nov 2025 | 7:27 pm UTC
The NGO’s chief says last month’s ceasefire ‘risks creating a dangerous illusion that life in Gaza is returning to normal’
Amnesty International has said Israel is “still committing genocide” against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, despite the ceasefire agreed last month.
The fragile, US-brokered truce between Israel and Hamas came into effect on 10 October, after two years of war.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 27 Nov 2025 | 6:51 pm UTC
Source: BBC News | 27 Nov 2025 | 6:37 pm UTC
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 27 Nov 2025 | 6:02 pm UTC
Leo welcomed by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as he begins six-day itinerary that will also include visit to Lebanon
A new world war is being fought “piecemeal” and is endangering the future of humanity, Pope Leo has warned, as he arrived in Turkey for his first foreign trip since becoming head of the Catholic church.
Speaking in Ankara, where he was welcomed on Thursday by the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Leo said the world was experiencing “a heightened level of conflict on the global level, fuelled by prevailing strategies of economic and military power”.
Continue reading...Source: World news | The Guardian | 27 Nov 2025 | 5:25 pm UTC
Source: World | 27 Nov 2025 | 5:07 pm UTC
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Source: Slashdot | 27 Nov 2025 | 5:01 pm UTC
Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters may be circling Zendesk users for its latest extortion campaign, with new phishing domains and weaponized helpdesk tickets uncovered by ReliaQuest.…
Source: The Register | 27 Nov 2025 | 4:30 pm UTC
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 27 Nov 2025 | 4:01 pm UTC
OpenAI says API users may be affected by a recent breach at its former data analytics provider, Mixpanel.…
Source: The Register | 27 Nov 2025 | 3:45 pm UTC
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 27 Nov 2025 | 3:01 pm UTC
hands on Tenstorrent probably isn't the first name that springs to mind when it comes to AI infrastructure. But unlike the litany of AI chip startups vying for VC funding and a slice of Nvidia's pie, Tenstorrent's chips actually exist outside the lab.…
Source: The Register | 27 Nov 2025 | 3:00 pm UTC
Watch the replay of the press conference held at the conclusion of ESA's Ministerial Council 2025 (CM25) in Bremen, Germany. ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher, as well as the hosting minister and the CM25 chair, present the outcome of this high-level meeting that took place on 26 and 27 November.
Download the press conference slides
Source: ESA Top News | 27 Nov 2025 | 2:40 pm UTC
The European Space Agency's long-delayed Rosalind Franklin rover has received a boost with confirmation that NASA is staying in the project.…
Source: The Register | 27 Nov 2025 | 2:30 pm UTC
Source: NYT > Top Stories | 27 Nov 2025 | 2:22 pm UTC
Before the Covid pandemic forced us to start paying with our cards or phones, we had to fill our pockets with shiny little bits of metal called coins. If you still possess any coins, you will find that most have the late Queen Elizabeth II embossed on one side and beside her name you might see the letters FD or FID. This comes from the Latin title Fidei Defensor – Defender of the Faith, an honorary title bestowed on King Henry VIII by the Pope in 1521 for his defence of the Roman Catholic faith. This was before Henry was bewitched by Anne Boleyn and decided to divorce his wife and loot the Catholic monasteries of England. (Fidei Defensatrix for females).
But what has this got to do with N. Ireland politics?
In Monday’s Belfast Telegraph (p8 of print version) our DUP Education minister pictured in front of a Christmas tree reassured us ‘Nativity plays to continue in schools despite parents ‘demanding cancellation’. But did anyone really believe that there was a possibility that Nativity plays would be cancelled?
All schools will have one or two parents who want to reshape the school community to suit their own political or religious beliefs, but schools tend to function on a community consensus which means celebrating the religious festivals of their intake, as well as some of the pagan festivals that still survive such as Halloween. (Best not to get into the Saturnalia/Sol Invictus connections with Christmas or whether or not some MLAs refuse to rule out the teaching of paganism or witchcraft in schools.)
Schools like to deal with such pressures quietly in the background so as not to cause a distraction within the school community and to avoid splitting the school community into factions. Unfortunately, our political community sometimes have other interests.
Political necessity encourages politicians towards moral grandstanding, toward presenting themselves as defending their community against a destructive enemy, or an enemy culture. Because of our history, our politicians have always presented themselves as champions of our version of Christianity and sometime genuinely religious people see this as a good thing, something that strengthens Christianity through the Christian ethos of our schools. Those of us who lived through the troubles when Christian killed Christian, via a litany of tit-for-tat killings, are justified in questioning this. (Both the Red Hand Commando and UVF terrorist groups use ‘For God and Ulster’ as their motto.)
Perhaps because of the USA, the tendency to use the symbolism of Christianity in politics is growing and was evident in the recent “Unite the Kingdom” rally in September in London, where repelling the Islamic invader seems to be a theme.
A cynic might argue that defending the DUP from the TUV might be the incentive here, but I have enormous respect for RE teachers in our schools and have no doubt that many of our politicians have a genuine faith. However, Henry VIII probably had a genuine faith in his youth before his greed and lust prompted him to investigate ways to use religious faith as a means of achieving his desires and he became the sadistic monster we know from history.
More recently, Roëlle Pruijssers has been boasting about ‘Christianity is making a SURGE in America’, he claims ‘Religion is coming back to America!’. But is this a type of Christianity most of us would recognize?
Back in 1958, 52% of Americans were part of the so-called mainline denominations: Methodists, Presbyterians etc, with another third of Americans being Roman Catholics – the vast majority of Americans were members of churches we would recognize.
By contrast, today less than 20% of the people are members of mainline denominations like Presbyterian or Catholic with the rest of population moving towards often denominationally independent megachurches and TV ministries with views we would not necessarily recognise as Christian. Doug Wilson, the self-taught pastor who co-founded Pete Hegseth’s denomination has insisted that it was a mistake to let women vote. (See Guardian of 23rd Nov where Bill McKibbin Maga complains about the evangelical perversion of Jesus’s message of radical love to one of hate and aggression.)
Roëlle Pruijssers and the USA are perhaps an extreme example but I suggest all of us need to be wary of politicians who cast themselves in the role of Defenders of the Faith.
Source: Slugger O'Toole | 27 Nov 2025 | 2:02 pm UTC
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