The fliers, found taped to light poles near St. Mary’s Armenian Apostolic Church, contained messages that denied the Armenian genocide but claimed that Israel “fully supports” its completion. They referenced the ongoing blockade of the Nagorno-Karabakh region by Azerbaijan, which has become a humanitarian crisis. (Martinez, Los Angeles Times)
Read MoreAfter a mass shooter killed six people Monday at the Covenant School, a small Christian academy, the community faced a controversial question: What’s the Christian thing to do about guns? (Foster-Frau, The Washington Post)
Read MoreBig tech is making a huge bet on artificial intelligence: Microsoft has invested $10 billion into OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, and has already integrated it into its Bing search engine. Google has its own AI, named Bard, which is about to be rolled out across almost all of its products. Meta, the company once known as Facebook, is doing the same, but has been unlucky – Meta’s AI leaked illegally onto the internet, for anyone to adapt. (Ball, The Telegraph)
Read MoreRishi Sunak has said that he is “very concerned” that schools are routinely allowing children to switch gender without telling parents. A report by Policy Exchange accused schools of uncritically contested beliefs on gender identity. It said that the practice of affirming “gender distress” has become embedded. (Swinford, The Times UK)
Read MoreNearly 500 years after papal decrees were used to rationalize Europe's colonial conquests, the Vatican repudiated those decrees on Thursday, saying the "Doctrine of Discovery" that was used to justify snuffing out Indigenous people's culture and livelihoods is not part of the Catholic faith. (Chappell, NPR)
Read MoreStarbucks launched Star Signs on March 20 to coincide with the astrological new year, offering Star Signs charts for customers based on their birth date and what time of day they like to take their coffee break. (Miller, Religion News Service)
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