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How a Ukrainian Teen Refugee Fled To Hungary For School and Safety

Currents News Staff

She’s got a pink backpack, a warm smile and started making new friends. Seventeen- year-old Alla Renska, a Ukrainian, has only been in Budapest, Hungary for a month. In an empty classroom of her new school, Renska says she never thought she’d end up here.

“No…no war. It’s 21st Century. It’s Ukraine. It’s Europe. Why?” asks Alla.

Before the war, she was a normal teenager making goofy videos with her friends, taking selfies. But then she recalled exactly when the war reached where she lived in Kyiv.

“When we heard explosions and our house was shaking,” Alla said.

Her parents made the agonizing decision to send her to stay with friends in Budapest. Alla’s dad took her to the train station on March 4. But in the crush of people also trying to leave, they were separated.

She took pics from the train: a bleak landscape she says matched how she felt. But then, she had an idea. She wrote an email to Korosi Baptist High School, one of the best in Hungary talking about the war and what happened to her.

“I really want to go to school and continue studying,” she wrote. “I kindly ask you to help me.”

Help they did.

The school converted these old containers into dorms  where Alla now lives and studies. Her days are spent in classes and at night. She chats with a few other Ukrainian girls just like her who also fled now living there too, even though she does still miss her family.

“It’s unfair,” she says. “It’s so unfair that I should be here and my parents there.”

The U.N. says more than four million refugees have fled Ukraine since the start of the war more than a month ago.

 

Ukrainian President Zelenskyy Accuses Russia of War Crimes During Address to United Nations

Currents News Staff

A sobering and graphic account of alleged atrocities at the hands of Russian soldiers.

“They killed entire families, adults and children and they tried to burn the bodies,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Zelenskyy demanded accountability telling world leaders that Russia’s actions are no different than a terror group.

“The most terrible war crimes of all times we see since the end of World War II,” he said.

One big distinction he says is that Russia is a permanent member of the UN Security Council.

“Where is the security the security council is supposed to guarantee?” Zelenskyy asked.

His address comes just one day after visiting mass graves in Bucha, Ukraine. The scene was a massacre exposed for the world to see. A growing number of leaders, including President Biden, want Russian president Vladimir Putin on trial for war crimes.

“It’s a deliberate campaign to kill, to torture, to write to commit atrocities,” said Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

NATO is now gathering evidence to prove it, according to the alliance’s U.S. ambassador. Yet the Kremlin is doubling down, calling the massacre, “fake.”

 

Yankees Fans Struck By Lightning While Leaving Spring Training Game

Currents News Staff

It’s not too often people get hit by lighting and live to talk about it. Ashley Moberg and her dad were on their way back to Chicago and shared what they could remember.

“We are big Yankees fans and had never seen spring training,” Ashley said, “so when we heard that the baseball strike had ended we jumped on getting some tickets and I’ve never been to Disney either, so we went to Disney for the first time as well.”

But they ran from a thunderstorm at Steinbrenner field in Tampa on Saturday. The dream trip then became a nightmare when they found themselves under a tree unable to locate their car.

“And there was a bright flash and the loud boom that I heard,” Ashley added. “The next thing I knew I was flying out of my shoes and my ears were ringing and my dad hit his head on the ground and then I hit the ground. I thought my dad was dead for about ten seconds there while I was lying on the pavement trying to figure out whether I had died.”

Her father hit the ground, breaking his cheekbone and the necklace Ashley was wearing: burned through her neck.

“For everyone who is asking,” Ashley said,  “yes, we got super powers and no we are not allowed to talk about them.”

Catholic News Headlines for Tuesday, 4/5/22

The president of Ukraine is making an impassioned plea to the United Nations in the wake of gruesome attacks by Russia in the war-torn country.

Teens forced to leave Ukraine are welcomed with open arms by a school in Hungary.

Why the CDC is about to undergo a sweeping review and possible changes.

How chess is helping Afghan refugee children adapt to life here in the U.S.

CDC Under The Microscope: Agency Will Undergo Sweeping Review

 Currents News Staff

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is used to scrutinizing science. But now, the agency itself is under the microscope. Its director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky says the Department of Health will conduct a sweeping review starting next Monday.

In a memo to staff, Walensky says it’s to improve how the agency communicates with the public and consider a restructuring. That news comes the same day as a bipartisan deal Senator Mitt Romney helped negotiate for his chamber.

It’s for $10 billion dollars of COVID relief money. The measure would fund therapeutics like oral antiviral pills and it would support vaccines, testing and research. What it would not do is send money directly to the CDC. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer says he wants to vote on the measure this week.

“On COVID, very briefly, over the last few days my Democratic colleagues and I continue talks with Senator Romney and Republicans, working all hours of the night and into the weekend,” said Sen. Schumer.

The White House says it would like more money in the plan.

“While we’re very encouraged by the progress,” said White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, “we’re going to need more because our objective here is going to make sure we can have funding for antivirals, the vaccines needed for, for people for many months to come.”

Honoring Parish Hero and Future Baseball Hall of Famer Gil Hodges During Memorial Mass in Brooklyn

Currents News Staff

Marking 50 years since the passing of a parish hero: Our Lady Help of Christians in Midwood, Brooklyn held a Memorial Mass for Gil Hodges who is set to become a baseball Hall of Hamer.

The Brooklyn legend was a parishioner at the church and often said a “Hail Mary” before big-league games.

While he will be inducted into the Hall of Fame in July, his parish also dedicated their statue of St. Joseph in his honor.

 

Global Condemnation Towards Russia Comes After Horrific Scenes in Ukraine Emerge

Currents News Staff

Outrage and calls for a war crimes trial against Russian President Vladimir Putin are echoing across the globe.

“The perpetrators of all these violations and war crimes will be held accountable,” said Peter Stano, Spokesperson for the European Commission for External Affairs.

The U.S. is seeking Russia’s suspension from the ‘UN Human Rights Council.’ President Joe Biden vows more sanctions are on the way.

“This guy is brutal and what’s happening in Bucha is outrageous…” the president said. “You may remember I got criticized for calling Putin a war criminal. Well, the truth of the matter is you saw what happened in Bucha. This warrants him – he is a war criminal.”

Over the weekend, horrifying images emerged out of Bucha near Kyiv: the bodies of at least 20 men, civilians left scattered along a single street. The town’s mayor says this mass grave could carry up to 300 victims.

“Russia will never be forgiven on this earth or in heaven,” said Mayor Anatoly Fedoruk.

Despite all the video evidence, Russia is claiming it’s “fake.” Ukraine’s president witnessed the atrocities from the ground and called it a “genocide.”

A holocaust survivor once escaped the Nazis as a baby and now at 82-years-old, she’s pushed out of her home for a second time.

“It is very difficult to see that my lovely town, my beautiful town, where I lived all my life,” said Margaryta Zatuchna, “is destroyed.”

Catholic News Headlines for Monday, 4/4/22

Pope Francis is now home after his apostolic journey to Malta.

Concerns about both a surge in migrants at the southern border and a rise in COVID cases here in the U.S.

A family is grateful for two police officers who rescued a woman from homelessness.