Horrific news via the Catholic Herald and Aid to the Church in Need today. They report that “the Sindh High Court in Karachi, Pakistan, has validated the marriage of a 13-year-old Catholic girl to a Muslim man who abducted her.” Thirteen year old Arzoo Raja had been kidnapped from outside her home on October 13th. […]
One of the issues that have been exercising people during the Covid-19 panic has been what impact the lockdowns have had on access to essential healthcare for other life-threatening conditions. In particular there is increasing concern about the possible impact that lack of hospital referrals may be having on the long term prospects and mortality […]
I was in Washington DC this time four years ago — a week before the 2016 election. The mood was eerie, not in the least because of all the morbid Halloween decorations. With skeletons hanging from trees, carved pumpkins on porches and fake gravestones littering front yards, the suburban vistas felt strangely like a scene […]
On the morning of Thursday the 29th, the French city of Nice was rocked by an Islamist terrorist attack that left 3 innocent people dead, one of whom was beheaded. Here’s what we know so far. Who was the attacker? Police have yet to officially confirm the attacker’s identity, but French media have identified him […]
The EU Economic Policy Committee has confirmed that the climate finance support provided by the EU and its member states (the UK included) amounted to €23.2 billion in 2019, a 6.9% increase compared to 2018. The total without the UK stood at €21.9 billion, a 7.4% increase compared to the total for the EU […]
The Spanish philosopher Leonardo Polo (1926-2013) is not well known in the English-speaking world, and even if he were, his work is challenging for the lay reader. However, his ideas on what it means to be a free human being have inspired many students of philosophy, including Dutch university teacher Daniel Bernardus, who has, in this challenging year […]
The New York Post, one of America’s oldest newspapers has said that Twitter is a “clear threat to healthy democracy” after the social media platform locked the paper’s account for publishing a major story into Hunter Biden. “Twitter is running a blackmail operation — cooperate or no traffic for you,” the paper wrote in a headline story accusing […]
Minister English will take a while to live this one down.
The money, you see, was only resting in Elisha McCallion’s account. That, at least, is the version of reality we are being asked to accept by the Sinn Fein leadership, which yesterday sought, and received, the resignation of the Derry-born senator over the mysterious diversion of ten thousand pounds of UK taxpayers money, which ended […]
Perhaps no country in the world has been the subject of more debate and scrutiny during the Coronavirus pandemic than Sweden. In the eyes of those who oppose the lockdown approach adopted by almost every other western country, Sweden is the example of a country that has successfully battled the virus without imposing draconian restrictions […]
The Bosphorus Bridge in Istanbul, Turkey is completed, connecting the continents of Europe and Asia over the Bosporus for the first time. The bridge extends between Ortaköy (in Europe) and Beylerbeyi (in Asia). Upon its completion in 1973, the Bosphorus Bridge had the fourth-longest suspension bridge span in the world, and the longest outside the […]
A recent report conducted by the Social Policy Department at UCD for the Dublin Regional Housing Executive contains some interesting insights into the response to homelessness in the city. Among the groups who took part were Merchants Quay, Crosscare, Focus, and the Capuchin Day Centre. Seemingly, no homeless persons nor any of the smaller voluntary […]