All posts tagged "Society"

Of course there would be quieter places for a Pinscher to do his business in Bolzano. But now, in South Tyrol's capital, he squats in Waltherplatz, right in front of the cathedral. The owner, mid-20s, fur-trimmed down jacket, dog on a lead, doesn't seem to care much. He doesn't even look up from his phone. Then the dog and owner are gone again. The legacy is left behind - right in the centre of the busy square. You can guess how it ends. Scenes like this are soon to be a thing of the past in Italy's northernmost province with its half million inhabitants - the majority of whom are German-speak......

Pope Francis has rejected criticism of his authorization to bless same-sex couples as "hypocrisy." "Nobody is shocked when I bless an entrepreneur who may be exploiting people, which is a very grave sin," the head of the Catholic Church told the magazine Credere, which means believe in Italian. "But they are outraged when I give my blessing to a homosexual. That is hypocrisy!" The 87-year-old was responding to criticism from conservative circles in the Church of new guidelines that allow priests to bless homosexuals together - albeit under strict restrictions. The decree, published at the end ......

Inside Halden Fengsel, a high-security prison in Norway, inmates choose their own clothing. Knockoff track suits from designer brands such as Karl Lagerfeld are favoured. They buy fresh produce from their well-stocked grocery store and chop onions with knives from their shared kitchens. They play in bands and walk in the woods and pray in a graceful holy room where clerestory windows beam sunlight down onto slate floors and a compass shows the direction of Mecca. But what surprised California corrections officer Steve "Bull" Durham most on a recent visit to Halden wasn't the prisoners but the ......

On a recent afternoon in LA’s Boyle Heights neighbourhood Christian Benitez and Eric M. Wood stood outside a corner liquor store searching for birds. The researchers spotted a house sparrow and pulled binoculars to their eyes. “They’re all over the shrubbery in Boyle Heights,” said Wood, an associate professor of ecology at Cal State Los Angeles. Among the most ubiquitous and abundant songbirds in the world, house sparrows are urban creatures that thrive where people do. They’re resilient, adaptable and aggressive, and are found around buildings and streets, scavenging food crumbs or nesting i......

Life in small-town Florida was once about blissfully losing her way on hikes, lounging by swimming holes and taking long drives to visit her favourite alligator zoo. Now, each step outside was laden with anxiety as she rushed to memorize a mental map of the safest bathrooms and fastest ways to navigate Walmart before strangers might begin to stare. As a transgender woman in a state where the governor declared war on “transgender ideology,” Violet Rin felt her image of Florida as an idyll fading. She became a near recluse, doubtful that much outside was worth the risks. Then she got a message f......

Women across Iceland stopped work and staged an all-day strike on Tuesday, the first protest of its kind on the island in nearly a half-century. Tens of thousands of Icelandic women gathered in the capital Reykjavik for a large rally. The strike, which was held under the slogan "Do you call this equality?," caused widespread disruptions to public life, with kindergartens, schools, banks and other institutions forced to shut their doors. Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir, 47, had also said she would take part. The fight for equality is progressing too slowly, the prime minister said in an inte......