News Briefs

Citing a lack of funding, the World Food Program announced on Dec. 1 that it was suspending food vouchers for more than 1.7 million Syrian refugees, a move its president called “disastrous for many already suffering families.” • The final report of a Vatican-ordered study of communities of women religious in the United States is expected to be released by the Vatican on Dec. 16. • Less than a week after he was installed in his new position, Chicago’s Archbishop Blase J. Cupich on Nov. 25 had a private meeting with President Obama, during which they discussed the president’s executive actions on immigration. • Advocates for the more than 140 men still being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, report that the release of several prisoners from the U.S. detention facility in November is seen as a sign that other transfers are in the works. • Just a few weeks after Georgetown University’s adjunct faculty and administration successfully concluded contract negotiations, adjunct faculty at another Catholic campus, St. Michael’s College in Vermont, voted 2 to 1 to form a union on Dec. 1. • Cardinal Joseph Zen and three leaders of the Occupy Central protest movement in Hong Kong turned themselves in to police on Dec. 3, asking to be arrested for illegally occupying public places, but were dismissed without charges.