As the New Zealand euthanasia referendum approaches, voters could be helped by looking at the experience in other countries before making up their minds on this complex topic. At the end of July, Czechia became the latest country to reject the legalisation of euthanasia following similar rejections in Portugal and Finland. The opposition to the […]
You have to hand it New York Orthodox Jewish community: the Irish Church leadership could learn a lot from them. When the Mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio – taking time off from marching in massive crowds against imagined rascism – decided to weld shut the gates of public parks and close down synagogues, […]
Kristie Higgs, who had been a pastoral assistant at a Church of England primary school in Gloucestershire, lost her case against dismissal on Wednesday. She had been sacked because the school management of Farmor’s school in Fairford had decided that she had been guilty of “gross misconduct.” When you consider that gross misconduct for teachers […]
Despite her serial twitter feed attacking Trump and supporting Biden and her hagiography of the loathsome Nancy Pelosi, I thought that Susan Page was a reasonably fair moderator for the Pence/Harris debate. She did frame one question in terms of Trump providing “misleading information” regarding his recent health and a gratuitous and immoderate reference to […]
The policy of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) of eradicating cultural, religious, and linguistic identities is systematic and derives from Xi Jinping’s reflections on the fall of the Soviet Union. Bitter Winter, the magazine on religious liberty and human rights in China, has documented in the last few weeks the escalation of the cultural genocide in Xinjiang, Tibet, and Inner […]
For the first time in 30 years the number of people in extreme poverty globally, is rising. Extreme poverty, as defined by the World Bank, entails surviving on less than $1.90 a day. The consequences of the global shutdown on global poverty are causing problems that will result in many deaths. We should be […]
Today I thought that I’d draw your attention to a particularly repulsive ad that graces a bus stop in Vancouver. The ad features a picture of a cute baby, smiling, looking with joy out at commuters. Underneath it, the ad says: “The most loving gift you can give your first child is not to have another.” […]
If the life of Donald J Trump were a movie we would now be in the tumultuous third act. The news that Trump has tested positive for the Coronavirus has shaken up the presidential race in another unexpected direction. If this were a movie it would be the perfect third act plot twist. “The Hero’s […]
In many ways, it’s surprising that it took this long for him to contract it. That’s not a comment about him personally, but about the job – he’s the President of the United States, in an election season. Even in normal times, he’s probably meeting twenty to thirty people a day sitting right across a […]
A controversial genetic study published in 2003 suggested that one in every 200 men alive today is a descendant of Mongol conqueror Genghis Khan. In central Asia, this figure rises to one in 12 — or about 16 million men. Impossible today? Not so fast. There were 20th century superspreaders, to borrow from the jargon of Covid-19 […]
Paddy Power, or to be exact Paddy Power punters thought that Biden won the first debate. Odds on him were shortened to 4/6 in the immediate aftermath. Hey, it’s as good a predictor as any as to what is likely to happen although they were completely wrong in 2016 when PP paid out on Hilary […]
Confession: Two weeks ago or so I decided that no, I wasn’t going to sit up into the early hours of the morning to watch two cranky seventy year olds shouting at each other in America. And I was absolutely intent on keeping that promise, until Virgin Media rang yesterday and asked would I review […]