SRN NEWS

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine is proposing to Russia a pause in attacks on each other’s energy infrastructure over the Orthodox Easter holiday, which will be observed this coming weekend, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. The offer was made through the United States, which has been mediating talks between delegations from Moscow and Kyiv, Zelenskyy said, as Russia’s invasion stretches into a fifth year. “If Russia is ready to stop strikes on our energy infrastructure, we will be ready to respond in kind,” the Ukrainian leader said in a public address late Monday. “This proposal, conveyed through the Americans, has already been presented to the Russian side.” There was no immediate comment from Moscow about the proposal. Previous attempts to secure ceasefires have had little or no impact. Russian President Vladimir Putin unilaterally declared a 30-hour ceasefire last Easter, but each side accused the other of breaking it. Russia effectively rejected a 30-day unconditional truce proposed last year by the U.S. and Ukraine as a step toward peace, insisting instead on a comprehensive settlement, but Moscow has announced several short, unilateral ceasefires. Zelenskyy said he doubted the Kremlin would take up his offer for the April 12 holiday pause as Russia is currently benefiting from higher oil prices driven by the Iran war. Zelenskyy is concerned that a prolonged U.S.-Israeli war on Iran could erode America’s support for Ukraine. The U.S.-led talks have made no progress on key issues, as Washington’s attention is held by the Middle East conflict, and the Russian and Ukrainian armies remain locked in battle on the roughly 1,250-kilometer (800-mile) front line. At the same time, Russia has pounded Ukraine’s power grid in an effort to demoralize civilians while Kyiv’s domestically produced long-range drones have repeatedly hit Russian oil infrastructure in a bid to dent Moscow’s main export revenue. “Ukraine’s expanding long-range strike campaign against Russian oil infrastructure is exploiting overstretched Russian air defenses and significantly damaging Russian oil export capabilities,” the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said in an assessment late Monday. “Russia’s geographical size poses an enormous challenge to defend, especially with traditional air defense systems on which the Russians reportedly still rely to protect against Ukraine drone salvos,” it added. Russia is also targeting public transport, including Ukraine’s vital rail network and bus services. On Tuesday morning, a Russian drone struck a bus as it approached a stop, killing four civilians and injuring 15 others, in the southeastern Ukraine city of Nikopol, authorities said. “This brutal attack on civilian regular transportation occurred during rush hour, when people were just going to work,” Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko wrote in an online post. “This is not an accident, it’s their (Russian) tactic: deliberate strikes on civilians.” Also, Ukrainian authorities said three people were killed and three others were injured in an attack on a residential building in the southern city of Kherson. An 11-year-old boy was killed in a drone strike near the eastern city of Synelnykove, officials there said, bringing the day’s civilian death toll to eight. Government and military authorities also reported power cuts in several eastern and southern areas in Ukraine following artillery and drone strikes. ___ Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

(SRN NEWS) – “Global Landscape,” a standout feature from SRN News, is a concise two-minute audio segment that delivers a snapshot of the day’s top religion-related news stories from around the world. This engaging feature provides listeners with timely insights into significant developments, cultural shifts, and key events shaping the intersection of faith and global affairs. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

(SRN NEWS)-(  )  Moms for Liberty made a name for itself at the local level, fighting to win control of school boards as it battled woke indoctrination in the classroom.  Now it’s being embraced by the Trump administration and gaining new influence in national decisions. CEO Tina Descovich (dess-KOH-vich) says the group has been a part of discussions around transgender sports bans, artificial intelligence and more.  Supporters say the group’s trajectory speaks to the power of its parental rights agenda, which has become a plank of conservative politics.  A lot of moms and dads across the country are concerned about what their kids are learning in school.   (  )  Hezbollah’s fight with Israel is displacing Christians in Lebanon.  Thousands of them now find themselves far from their ancestral churches, where Christians have maintained a strong presence through centuries of Byzantine, Arab and Ottoman conquest — as well as plenty of 20th Century crises.  Believers are estimated to make up around a third of Lebanon’s population of roughly 5.5 million people.  With 12 Christian sects, the country is home to the largest proportion of Christians of any nation in the Arab world.  Many Christians had to spend most of Holy Week away from their homes due to the fighting. (  )  Supporters of England’s nearly 500-year-old church choir tradition are trying to preserve it as the nation becomes increasingly secular.  They have launched a campaign for the government to recognize choral services as an important part of Britain’s culture under a United Nations program that seeks to protect intangible cultural heritage.  The epitome of British church choir tradition is Evensong, a weekly evening service of hymns, psalms and prayers laid out by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer of the Church of England in 1549. The service is performed by the choir, with the congregation participating simply by listening.   (  )  Lawmakers in India are making it harder for foreign NGO’s — including Christian ones — to operate.  They have added amendments to the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, which is designed to strangle Christian ministries that depend on funding from the U.S. and other places.  The Hindu Nationalist party that is running India’s federal government has made no secret of its plans to promote Hinduism over all other religions in the vast nation.  Meanwhile, in the countryside, Christians are being terrorized by radical Hindu groups which have publicly vowed to drive them out of India or kill them. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

(SRN NEWS)-Over 400 families facing eviction from public housing in Alexandria have been saved by the Alfred Street Baptist Church.  The congregation has paid off one million dollars in back rent that was owed to the city.  Pastor Howard-John Wesley tells the Washington Post “As the Lord changes our life, the Lord empowers us to change the lives of others.”  The church has a history of raising a lot of money for community needs, recently paying off local students’ college loan debts.   Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

(SRN NNEWS)-  The Pew Research Center is celebrating America’s 250th birthday with a wide-ranging look at the country in the 50 years since the Bicentennial.  One of the big changes is how many children the average American woman has in her lifetime.  In 1976 it was three — in 2026 it is TWO.  Pew says “the introduction of the birth control pill, delays in marriage and increases in women working outside the home have contributed to the change. Brought to you by www.srnnews.com