Tens of thousands of Polish women defying lockdown rules in the streets. Cathedrals invaded by chanting crowds. Handmaids walking down church aisles. Banners with slogans like: “You Have Blood on Your Hands” and “You are Building Women’s Hell.” Ever since Poland’s highest court ruled last Thursday that abortion due to foetal defects is unconstitutional, the […]
Who’s going to win the American election? With a week to go, the polling and the data all point in one direction, and yet the lessons of 2016, alongside the enthusiasm for President Trump’s campaign, all point in another. Losing campaigns, of course, always point to polling errors and massive enthusiasm for their side right […]
Since Canada’s law on euthanasia and assisted suicide came into effect four years ago, health-care costs have dropped millions of dollars, according to a Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) report. The report on assisted dying calculates that since becoming legal on June 17, 2016, Canada’s health-care costs have dropped C$86.9 million. “The total net reduction in costs […]
The original rationale for COVID lockdowns and strict social distancing was to “flatten the curve” so as not to overwhelm hospitals with too many acutely ill patients. We have accomplished that: though things came close in New York City, demand for ventilators in the US has not exceeded our hospitals’ surge capacity. But in many […]
This week’s New Yorker carried an article by Andrew Marantz whose main thrust was that Facebook is not doing a good job of moderating its content. The result is that all sorts of people and groups that, in the view of many experts the reporter interviewed, should not be able to use the electronic megaphone of Facebook, are allowed […]
The last debate of the 2020 American Presidential election took place in Nashville last night and it is difficult to see that it might have been a game changer. It was moderated by Kristen Welker who was reasonably moderate for the want of a better word, and the format allowing uninterrupted sequences of responses worked […]
I’ve seen some strange things during elections but this American Presidential contest surely trumps all, pardon the terrible pun. At 1am Irish time, a joint news conference was held by the Director of National intelligence, John Ratcliffe and FBI Director Chris Wray. A few hours later as people here slumbered and Americans on the east coast prepared […]
The author of this piece is His Excellency Ophir Kariv, the Ambassador of Israel to Ireland The establishment of full diplomatic relations between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain is a watershed moment for the Middle East. It is a historic event that marks a new beginning for the region, and in addition to […]
The Lancet is one of the world’s oldest and most prestigious medical journals. It is also highly influential in the world of health policy formulation. It can quite literally be a career making event for a researcher or a scientist to have their work published in the journal. Indeed, in the niche world of […]
South Korea has a problem: according to critics its abortion legislation is out of date. So earlier this month, a bill to decriminalize it up to the fourteenth week of was tabled in the South Korean parliament. South Korea has banned abortion since 1953. Exceptions were introduced in 1973 for cases of rape or incest. […]
Every nation cherishes an image of itself. In Australia, we are often told that ours was formed on the beaches of Gallipoli, but it’s older and more complex than that. Long before the Australian union, the people of each of the Australian colonies developed self-images of their own, in great variety. Few directly referred to […]
The conclusions of Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse are seldom questioned. But the perspective which underpinned the work of the Royal Commission is indifferent, if not hostile, to religious belief. Jane Adolphe and Ronald J. Rychlak help to remedy that deficiency in the splendid study which they have edited, Clerical Sexual Misconduct: an […]