The latest news on Health Care, Climate Change, Asian Typhoon, Iran, Sudan, UK Politics, and Select op-eds.

Sign up to receive our daily news summary via e-mail »

Quote of the Day. "We have more people than ever coming here thinking they'd never ever be here." Amy Ginsburg, executive director of Manna Food Center in Montgomery County, MD, speaking of families who had never asked for help before -- many of them former middle-class residents now unemployed or facing foreclosure. (Washington Post)

FAITH IN THE NEWS

High Court to Consider Church-State Implications of Mojave Cross “It would be easy to miss among the yucca and Joshua trees of this vast place -- a small plywood box, set back from a gentle curve in a lonesome desert road. It looks like nothing so much as a miniature billboard without a message.”

NEWS AT HOME

Health Care. Showdowns set on two key issues in healthcare debate “Congressional Democrats this week will push toward showdowns on two of the toughest issues in the healthcare debate: whether to create a government alternative to private insurance, and how to pay the approximately $1-trillion cost of the overhaul.” Abortion Fight Complicates Debate on Health Care “Abortion opponents in both the House and the Senate are seeking to block the millions of middle- and lower-income people who might receive federal insurance subsidies to help them buy health coverage from using the money on plans that cover abortion.” Public option may have new life “The public option limped out of August, battered and left to die in the Senate. But its supporters are working hard this week to bring it back, against the odds, with a series of high-profile votes in the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday.” GOP takes 'targeted' health-care approach “Up against an overwhelming Democratic majority, Republican arguments against the health-care reform plan so far largely have been limited to requests to slow down the process, maintain some fiscal restraint and make Democrats live up to President Obama's promises.”

Poverty Rising. Downturn Weighs on Poor “Poverty rose in the West and Midwest last year, as slowdowns in housing and manufacturing sent more families below the poverty line, according to a Census Bureau report released Tuesday.” D.C. Area Poverty Data Grim but Basically Unchanged in 2008 “More than one in four District children were living in poverty last year, even as the region was weathering the recession's onset better than most metropolitan areas,”

NEWS AROUND THE WORLD

Climate Change. Time is running out for climate deal, UN warns world leaders “The United Nations warned world leaders yesterday they have only 70 days to reach a new deal to limit global warming, while environmentalists pointed to the deadly floods in the Philippines to illustrate the already devastating impact of climate change.” India plans to cut carbon and fuel poverty with untested nuclear power “India's prime minister today signalled a huge push in nuclear power over the coming decades, using an untested technology based on nuclear waste and the radioactive element thorium.”

Asian Typhoon. Philippines 'overwhelmed' as new storm threatens after Ketsana “The authorities in the Philippines admitted today to being overwhelmed by weekend floods which inundated the capital, Manila, killing unknown hundreds of people and making tens of thousands homeless.” Asian typhoon death toll tops 300 “Twenty-three people are dead in central Vietnam today from Typhoon Ketsan, which killed at least 284 earlier when it crossed the Philippines as a tropical storm.”

Iran. U.S. Plans to Isolate Iran if Nuclear Talks Fail “The Obama administration is laying plans to cut Iran's economic links to the rest of the world if talks this week over the country's nuclear ambitions founder, according to officials and outside experts familiar with the plans.” U.S., Allies Seek New Ways to Sanction Iran “The Obama administration and its Western allies are looking at new ways to constrict Iran's energy, transportation and financial sectors in the wake of last week's revelation that Tehran had secretly developed a second nuclear-fuel facility.” Iran missile tests draw criticism “Western powers have strongly condemned the recent spate of missile tests by Iran, saying the rocket launches were 'provocative'". A Nuclear Debate Brews: Is Iran Designing Warheads? “Behind their show of unity about Iran’s clandestine efforts to manufacture nuclear fuel, however, is a continuing debate among American, European and Israeli spies about a separate component of Iran’s nuclear program: its clandestine efforts to design a nuclear warhead.”

Afghanistan. NATO chief says more troops needed in Afghanistan “Stepping into an intensifying debate in Washington, the new head of NATO said Monday that more allied troops are needed in Afghanistan to help train the country's security forces.” Nato urges new Afghan strategy “Nato's new secretary general has acknowledged fading public support for the war in Afghanistan and called for a new approach.” U.S. Says Taliban Has A New Haven in Pakistan “As American troops move deeper into southern Afghanistan to fight Taliban insurgents, U.S. officials are expressing new concerns about the role of fugitive Taliban leader Mohammad Omar and his council of lieutenants, who reportedly plan and launch cross-border strikes from safe havens around the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta.” Musharraf: Afghan debate shows U.S. weak “Former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said Monday that the U.S. would make a "disastrous" mistake if it withdrew from Afghanistan and warned that a delay in sending more troops would be seen as a sign of weakness.”

Sudan. U.S. Envoy's Outreach to Sudan Is Criticized as Naive “The volatility of this East African nation -- from the Darfur conflict to the threat of renewed civil war in the south -- is becoming a test of how President Obama will reconcile a policy of engagement with earlier statements blasting a government he said had 'offended the standards of our common humanity.'"

Honduras. Honduras Shuts Down Media Outlets, Then Relents “The de facto government backed off Monday from its attempt to shut down protests and limit free speech after congressional leaders warned that they would not support the measure.” Zelaya addresses UN via cell phone “Manuel Zelaya, the ousted president of Honduras, has addressed the UN General Assembly by telephone, appealing to the world body to restore the rule of law in his country.”

UK Politics. UK PM delivers major party speech “Prime Minister Gordon Brown has urged Labour to 'change the world again' as he makes his make-or-break speech to the party's annual conference.”

OPINION

The Next Culture War (David Brooks, New York Times) “A crusade for economic self-restraint would have to rearrange the current alliances and embrace policies like energy taxes and spending cuts that are now deemed politically impossible. But this sort of moral revival is what the country actually needs.”

Sojourners' Daily Digest is a compilation of the top news related to our commitments of life and peace, economic and racial justice, and care of creation, with a special focus on news of the engagement of faith in public life.