Twenty Things That Caught My Eye Today: Ukraine, Foster Care, Iranian Christians, & More

1. We cannot abandon our children with disabilities: Updates pour in from priests in Ukraine

2. Families taking cover in our rectory: A priest reports from Ukraine on the 1st hours of war

3.

4.

5.

6. George Weigel: On Ukraine

7. Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk appeals for prayers for Ukraine

8. 

https://twitter.com/michaelrstrain/status/1495511909956734977?s=11

9. Chinese Christians Held in Secretive Brainwashing Camps: Sources

10. Lela Gilbert: The Precarious Circumstances of Iran’s Christians

11. Farhad Rezaei: Iran’s Strategic Partnership with China Will Lead to a Further Decline in Human Rights

A troubling aspect of the deal with China is that it obliges Iran to use China’s telecommunication technology, internet platforms, and high-tech digital surveillance systems. This includes biometric facial recognition technology and network cameras, which the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) uses in Xinjiang province, where two million Uighurs have been arbitrarily held captive in so-called “re-education camps.”

…

Such technological support to a repressive regime and human rights violator like Iran would effectively help it suppress dissidents further and tighten its control over the nation.

12.   

13.

14. Nicole Gelinas: New York City’s War on Women

In the aftermath of Lee’s killing, New York’s elected officials are continuing to back away from any notion that these men should have been behind bars in the first place. Sunday night, Manhattan borough president Mark Levine expressed “heartbreak and anger,” saying that “the broken mental-health system must be fixed.” Even Mayor Eric Adams, who won office on a tough-on-crime agenda, said that “while the suspect who committed this heinous act is now in custody, the conditions that created him remain.”

What system? What conditions?

The only specific point of failure here is that New York State and City had four chances to incapacitate Nash last year and earlier this year—after he punched a stranger in a subway station, and after he committed acts of antisocial vandalism.

15. Sarah A. Font and Naomi Schaefer Riley: Longer stays in foster care can harm Illinois children

Fewer kids leaving the system means fewer open foster homes for those entering. Worse still, kids who stay in care for longer often end up with multiple placements, experiencing more trauma each time they are moved. According to the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being, “Changes in placement were … more common among children with a history of 36 months or more spent continuously in foster care. (They) most typically experienced five placement changes compared to the median of three placements.” As a result, they are more likely to develop the severe mental health and behavioral challenges that leave congregate care as their only viable option.

16. Melissa Langsam Braunstein: Amnesty International’s Problematic Israel Report

“Crime of Apartheid: The Government of Israel’s System of Oppression Against Palestinians” clocks in at 280 pages and is full of biased analysis that does not reflect reality on the ground. Still, it’s worth considering how this report fits into the ecosystem of anti-Israel ideas and activism.

Jonathan Schanzer, senior vice president for research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, calls the report “antisemitic at its core. It absolutely meets the IHRA definition [of antisemitism], holds Israel to a different standard, twists Israel’s history, and mischaracterizes last May, a defensive war where Israel responded. There’s so much in there, it’s almost hard to unpack all of it.”

17. Kelly Sikkema: Responding to 7 pro-choice claims about embryonic hearts

18. Erica Sandberg: Change in the Air in San Francisco

On Tuesday, San Francisco held its first recall election in nearly four decades. Residents voted to oust three of the seven members of the San Francisco Unified School District’s Board of Education: its president Gabriela López, Alison Collins, and Faauuga Moliga.

The board members found themselves on the recall ballot for egregious incompetence. San Francisco was among the last major cities in the U.S. to reopen its public schools after the worst of the pandemic. While keeping the schools closed, the board seized the opportunity to fulfill a radical political agenda. They attempted to rename 44 schools based on historical misinformation and personal opinion, including those named after Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Robert Louis Stevenson, and even Dianne Feinstein.

The board also purged the merit-based admissions process for Lowell High School, on the justification that the school lacked diversity (Asians comprised the majority of the student body). This beloved, academically rigorous institution obviated the need for low-income families to pay for expensive private education elsewhere. When an angry parent challenged the board’s decision on Twitter, López responded with a middle-finger emoji.

19. 

20.