Private donations outpace government flood relief in India

INDIA: Private donors are stepping up more than the state to provide relief from the worst flooding in a century in Kerala state. Thus far, local and expat Indians—using online and GoFundMe campaigns—have donated $103 million versus the central government’s $85 million (with an estimated $3 billion in damage). The Indian government in 2016 evicted foreign-based ministry efforts and has rejected foreign aid for flood relief this year. But local aid efforts have exposed widening rifts among Kerala’s Hindu, Muslim, and Christian communities.

VATICAN CITY: It’s becoming clear that the coverage of clergy sex abuse is becoming a moment for Catholics—including Catholic hierarchy and perhaps the pope himself—who want to overturn the church’s teaching on homosexuality. Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò—whose 11-page letter condemned homosexual networks inside the church acting “with the power of octopus tentacles”—is depicted in this New York Times article as heading up conservatives “taking up arms” against Pope Francis’ “inclusive vision.” Terry Mattingly has a helpful primer on ciphering ongoing coverage. The irony, Ross Douthat points out, is that in his effort to be a theological change agent, Pope Francis (according to Viganò) has tolerated a corrupt old Roman guard within the church.

IRELAND: Authorities denied visas to the entire Christian delegations from Iraq and Pakistan slated to attend the World Meeting of Families this month in Dublin, attended by Pope Francis and other leading clergy.

RUSSIA: Moscow’s cyberattack directed at the Washington-based Hudson Institute likely stemmed from the think tank’s Kleptocracy Initiative—a research gold mine on how despots and oligarchs steal from their own countries.

MYANMAR: U.S. State Department findings coincide with a UN report released Monday, U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley told the UN Security Council, which said Myanmar’s military carried out mass killings and gang rapes of Muslim Rohingya with “genocidal intent.”

MEXICO: Florida fruit and vegetable growers aren’t any happier with the new U.S.-Mexico trade pact than they were with NAFTA, yet pressure is all on Canada now.

MIDDLE EARTH stands as the “most immersive and detailed fictional realm of our own age,” and Christopher Tolkien’s shepherding of his father’s legacy has been a success, judging by the latest posthumous work from J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fall of Gondolin.

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