In Knock
Rachel Andrews 11 July 2018
Tags: abortion | ireland | religion
Father Brian McKevitt delivered the homily at Knock Basilica in County Mayo on Sunday. The service was billed as an All Ireland Act of Reparation, a communal act of repentance on behalf of those of us who voted Yes in the referendum on 25 May. Ireland, Fr McKevitt said, has become a ‘pro-choice’ society, where people have decided that either God does not exist or is irrelevant, and are making their own decisions about what is right or wrong. ‘I will go to Mass on Sunday, if I choose,’ he said. ‘I will stay with my spouse, if I choose. I will look after my children, if I choose. I will marry a person of the same sex, if I choose. I will even end the life of an unborn child, if I choose.’Read More
Beate Zschaepe was convicted of a litany of crimes including murder, membership of a terrorist organization, bomb attacks and a number of robberies.
She showed no emotion as the verdict was read out.
Zschaepe was arrested in 2011, after two accomplices were found dead following an apparent murder suicide.
The 43-year-old had been a member of a group known as National Socialist Underground (NSU), an organisation that Germany’s Attorney General described as a "right-wing extremist group whose purpose was to kill foreigners, and citizens of foreign origin." Read more
Spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos said that "all measures" will be taken against the Russian diplomats.
"It's not possible for us to accept behavior that violates international law and doesn't show respect to the Hellenic Republic," Tzanakopoulos told private TV station Skai.
"The assessment is that there has been such behavior and that's why all measures will be taken." Read more
“Because of given circumstances I want to point out one thing: I experienced the Soviet occupation of one part of Germany myself. It is good that we are independent today,” said Merkel, who grew up in East Germany, a former satellite state of the Soviet Union. Read more
Ponsati, a 61-year-old professor in political economy at the University of St Andrews, has been released on bail as she challenges the extradition through the Spanish courts.
Torra and Ponsati are due to give a press conference in Edinburgh at 1000 GMT on her case, after which Torra will meet Sturgeon at her official residence in Bute House.
Michael Keating, professor of political science at the University of Aberdeen, said the meeting between Torra and Sturgeon is possible thanks to "a degree of normality" returning to Catalonia after last year's events.
There is a long-running affinity between Scottish and Catalan separatists. Read more
Helmets for Dutch cyclists, whatever their age, are unthinkable. Brakes, lights, bells and other fripperies are optional extras. Sometimes they look where they are going. Sometimes they text. Sometimes they stop at red lights. Sometimes they don’t. Usually they stick to their lanes but sometimes they swerve on to the pavement. Whatever. The accordionist played faster and faster. It was like watching an endless circus act, full of a mad midsummer joy that it was impossible not to share, even vicariously. Summer is short and so, for the unwary visitor, is life. Read more
No country is more angry about the pipeline than Ukraine, the country Trump is supposedly set to abandon when he meets Vladimir Putin on Monday in Helsinki.
Ukraine stands to lose billions of much needed dollars if Russia can transfer its gas transmissions to Europe across the Baltic sea, away from a pipeline currently running across Ukrainian territory.
Earlier this week the Ukrainian president, Petro Poroshenko, warned: “This is not a commercial project – it is not economical or profitable – it is absolutely a political project. There is no point, from the economic point of view, creating this project. This is absolutely a geopolitical project.” Read more
Sources familiar with the deal had said the London listing was delayed after authorities in Dubai unexpectedly decided to freeze tuition fees, meaning the company’s financial forecasts had to be adjusted.Read more
The Greek government has accused the Russian officials of acting to obtain and distribute sensitive information.
Russia said on Wednesday it would mirror the move by expelling two Greek diplomats, according to reports.
It marks a rare downturn in diplomatic relations between Athens and Moscow, who have shared close ties for decades.
Greece called for the immediate expulsions amid claims that a number of Russian diplomats were involved in efforts in the country to extract material that could then be used to bribe Greek state officials, the Athens daily Kathimerini reports.
One of the two diplomats to be expelled was named as Russian embassy official Victor Yakovlev, according to Kathimerini, which cites senior diplomatic sources.
The Kathimerini report contains allegations that Russia has in some way tried to intervene in sensitive issues, particularly with respect to the issue of the name of Macedonia.Read More
Claude Lanzmann, the filmmaker who fundamentally changed the way the world saw the Holocaust, died on July 5 at age 92.
Calling him a “savant and artist,” French President Emmanuel Macron eulogized Lanzmann as the man who had ensured France would forever preserve the memory of the Shoah. The last living member of France’s glorious postwar existentialist intellectual community, Lanzmann was a follower, and friend, of Jean-Paul Sartre and inherited the position of editor of the famed philosopher’s prestigious journal Les temps modernes after Sartre’s wife (and Lanzmann’s former lover) Simone de Beauvior passed away. Read More
Trump has repeatedly criticized alliance members for their levels of defense spending ahead of the meeting.
In a series of tweets and comments to reporters as he departed Washington, D.C., on July 10, Trump suggested NATO’s other 28 members should “reimburse” the United States for its spending on the alliance.
Most worried are the the East-European members of the Alliance, who fer the growing Russian threat. Poland and Romania are actually hosting key elements of the US-built anti-missile shield, and fear that Trump might want to dismantle it.Read more
Albania’s Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Ditmir Bushati, highlighted the importance of the sea delimitation deal between the two countries.
“We have taken steady steps forward in the talks on a new agreement on sea delimitation, an agreement based on the principles of international public law in the field of sea, on top of all a new agreement which would be equitable and applicable for both our countries”, said Bushati..Read More
“Today, recuperating Russia is being viewed not as an ally but as a threat to the US dominance,” Sergei Shoigu said in an interview with Italy’s Il Giornale newspaper, which was released on Wednesday.
“I, as president of the Russian Geographical Society, have for a long time wanted to present the US colleagues with a globe so that they would look at it and explain to us, why the ‘US adversaries’ designated by them are located in the Middle East and East Asia, while all their military bases and groups are nearing Russia's borders,” he added.Read More
Beate Zschaepe, 43, was found guilty of 10 counts of murder in deadly shootings of nine Turkish and Greek-born immigrants as well as of a German policewoman. The murders were carried out by a trio known as the National Socialist Underground (NSU).Read More
The two-day meet in Brussels was already shaping up to be the alliance's most difficult in years, with Europe and the US engaged in a bitter trade spat and Trump demanding that NATO allies "reimburse" Washington for the cost of defending the continent.Read more
The socialist and feminist is one of the first figures to confirm she will put her name forward for the May 2019 elections.
Ireland is due to get another two seats after Britain leaves the European Union, bringing its total tally in the European parliament to 13.
However, this is unlikely to be formally confirmed until December. Furthermore, it is unclear yet where the extra seats might go.Read More
“I think we can cope with it,” von der Leyen said in response to the berating from the U.S. president, speaking to CNBC's Hadley Gamble on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Brussels, Belgium. Read More
A campaign to get Green Day’s 2004 hit ‘American Idiot’ to the top of the charts has attracted thousands of supporters and is well on the way to achieving the musical quest.
“Simple. When President Trump arrives on UK soil for his visit on Friday 13th July 2018, 'American Idiot' will be the official No.1 single. Are you in?” The campaign’s Facebook page reads.
The ‘Get American Idiot to No.1 for Trump’s UK Visit’ organisers said they’ve rallied more than 20,000 supporters because it’s “hilarious”. They also said they know the campaign is “idiotic” but they’re doing it anyway.Read More
The Library will produce a briefing for this debate and the page will be updated when it is made available. You can be notified when this takes place by emailing [email protected] Read More
“None of us is hoping for this trade war, (but) it seems to be unavoidable,” said China Investment Corp (CIC) President Tu Guangshao, who was speaking at a financial conference in Paris.
China has accused the United States of bullying and warned it would hit back after President Donald Trump’s administration raised the stakes in their trade dispute, threatening 10 percent tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods.Read More
Presidents Trump and Putin will finally meet next week in Helsinki for a bilateral summit. Throughout the Cold War, summits between US and Soviet leaders were overwhelmingly welcomed in both countries and the world as an opportunity to reduce tensions. After the Cold War, these meetings became routine. Today, the scheduling of the Trump-Putin summit has proven controversial across the Euro-Atlantic region. Yet it is our region that stands to benefit the most from renewed dialogue between Presidents Trump and Putin—and leaders across Europe—particularly if it is focused on cooperation in areas of existential common interest.
Reducing and eliminating nuclear and other military risks is a vital common interest for all nations—especially in an era of destabilization, where serious political differences, new military technologies, and a breakdown in arms control could trigger a nuclear catastrophe. The United States and the Russian Federation have a shared responsibility to work together along with other nations to clarify our differences and mitigate these risks. Progress can only be made through the engagement of leaders. Moreover, in every country that possesses nuclear weapons, anything relating to nuclear policy is inherently “presidential.” Read More
