(RNS) — America has become less religious because white Americans are less religious. Most recent immigrants are religious, and many are Christians.

Inequality, immigration and civil rights are the battlegrounds on which the church, and some other Christian denominations, are fighting, says Guardian foreign affairs commentator Simon Tisdall

Successive governments have failed to tackle entrenched inequalities in early years outcomes for boys from low-income backgrounds, IfG report warns

Area’s MP says it would cost more than local council’s annual budget to remove the 10-metre high pile of waste Fly-tippers have dumped a “mountain of illegal waste” in Oxfordshire so large that removing it could cost more than the local council’s annual budget, the area’s MP has said. Hundreds of tonnes of waste, stacked 10 metres high, appeared in a field between the River Cherwell and the A34 near Kidlington. One charity called the huge dump of rubbish “an environmental catastrophe unfolding in plain sight”. Continue reading...

Armed forces and settlers used bombs, dogs, poison and machinery to attack people and infrastructure at key sites Israeli armed forces and settlers have attacked Palestinian water sources more than 250 times in the past five years, amounting to the most sustained assault on civilian water supplies in recent years, new research reveals. Bombs, dogs, poison and heavy machinery were among the weapons used to attack Palestinians and their infrastructure at drinking water, irrigation and sanitation sites in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip on at least 90 occasions between January 2024 and mid-2025, according to the Pacific Institute, a California-based nonpartisan thinktank tracking water conflicts. Continue reading...

(RNS) — Taylor Swift’s fans engage in global rituals showing how the pop superstar’s music creates a sense of belonging and near-religious devotion.

The massacres carried out by the RSF in El Fasher, Darfur, with the support of its UAE sponsors, will only stop when the international community acts, says Guardian columnist Nesrine Malik

Education secretary says mandatory test needed to tackle ‘shocking outcomes’ for many working-class children Bridget Phillipson has said she is ready to take on the unions in a battle over compulsory reading tests for 13-year-olds and more extracurricular activities for all children to prevent them becoming “stuck in a doom loop of detachment” from school. The education secretary said that teaching unions, who have argued the tests were “unnecessary and distracting”, should “really think carefully” about whether they could justify standing in the way of tackling the “shocking outcomes” that exist for many working-class children. Continue reading...

LONDON (RNS) — The king demonstrated that the simple act of showing up for another faith is a civic act worth preserving.

Fear of failure is damaging in a host of ways yet is rife in many schools. Drawing on self-worth theory, we explore whether fear of academic failure is higher in education systems with features that ...