Friday's News & Ideas - 2/21/2025

Israel says body returned by Hamas not that of hostage
NPR: The Israeli military said Friday that the body of a hostage returned a day earlier is not the mother of two young boys whose bodies were also released by the Palestinian militant group Hamas under a ceasefire deal.

PCA removes webpage giving advice on how to avoid deportation
Ministry Watch: The archived webpage published on Jan. 9 by Mission to North America started by framing the issue with a question, “Did you know? The average undocumented person has been present in the US for more than a decade.”

Texas ACNA congregation becomes second to join Episcopal Church
Religion News Service: Resurrection South Austin’s rector, Shawn McCain Tirres, said his congregants “wanted rootedness and wanted to feel connected to something ancient and global” in joining the long-established form of American Anglicanism.

This is the year the Oscars found God — but can they keep the faith?
The Guardian: From “Conclave” to “The Brutalist” to “A Real Pain,” films about religion are unusually well represented at the Academy Awards — some with decidedly unorthodox themes

Texas banned abortion. Then sepsis rates soared.
ProPublica: The rate of sepsis shot up more than 50% for women hospitalized when they lost their pregnancies in the second trimester.

The Spark

Grave mistakes: The history and future of Chile’s ‘disappeared’
A brutal regime hid hundreds of people’s remains. Can new forensic science help find them — and regain public trust? Undark Magazine asks.

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