Prime Minister: Catholic Hospitals Will Now Be Forced to Perform Abortions

/0 Comments/in , /by

Now that abortion is legal in Ireland, all hospitals, including those with a Catholic ethos, will be required to carry out abortions once the country’s repeal of a constitutional abortion ban goes into effect.

Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadka made the announcement while discussing surgical abortions during a speech to the Irish parliament, just a few weeks after Ireland voted by a large margin (63 percent) to repeal the amendment that had banned abortion in the country for the last 35 years. While many conservatives predicted Ireland’s abortion ban repeal would lead to the loss of other freedoms, it’s somewhat surprising how quickly this has proven to be the case. . .

The Irish government has been drafting legislation to address how abortion law will work now that the ban is overturned. One proposed bill would allow women to get an abortion during the first trimester, and into the early weeks of the second trimester in extreme cases. Legislators are using Ireland’s Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act of 2013 as a guide. This piece of legislation allowed for abortions in extreme medical circumstances, and for individual medical personnel to opt out of giving those abortions.

Varadkar is Ireland’s first openly gay prime minister. President Trump has boasted about their “outstanding relationship” and Time magazine called him one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

He did offer a loophole for doctors, nurses, and midwives who want to opt out of performing abortion procedures on conscience grounds, but it’s unclear how that would play out in practice. Regardless, Varadkar was still clear all of Ireland’s medical institutions, no matter their origins or funding, would be required to participate in performing abortions now. (Read more from “Prime Minister: Catholic Hospitals Will Now Be Forced to Perform Abortions in Ireland” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

BADASS: What This British Special Forces Sergeant Did To Six Taliban Terrorists Is Incredible

/0 Comments/in , , /by

By The Daily Wire. Great Britain’s equivalent of the American Navy Seals are the Special Air Service (SAS) fighters, the British Army’s most renowned special forces unit. One SAS sergeant fighting the terrorist Taliban in Afghanistan in January showed why SAS forces rank with the best in the world in a harrowing confrontation with six Taliban fighters in a nearly pitch-black tunnel.

After the SAS fighters had destroyed a Taliban base, six Taliban fighters escaped into an underground cave complex in northern Afghanistan; one of the fighters was a “high-value target.” The series of tunnels were perfect for claustrophobia; less than two feet wide, four feet high, and almost completely dark. Then the 29-year-old sergeant, a veteran who had fought in Iraq, took it upon himself to pursue the Taliban fighters.

The mission had only been partially successful because the base was destroyed, but the SAS were after a “high-value target” and he had escaped into the tunnels. It was pretty clear none of the Afghan commandos was going to go in after him so he volunteered. There wasn’t enough room to use a long-barreled weapon so the Brit used his Glock 9mm pistol and grabbed a claw hammer. He couldn’t see the Taliban but he could hear and smell them. He shot three of them dead one after the other but then his pistol jammed. He fought two more in the dark where the tunnel opened into a larger room that was partially lit by a candle. After he killed those two, he was attacked by another but killed him almost instantly with a single blow.

(Read more from “Badass: What This British Special Forces Sergeant Did to Six Taliban Terrorists Is Incredible” HERE)

_______________________________________________________

British special forces soldier killed six Taliban in pitch-black, Viet Cong-style tunnel fight

By Military Times. . .The soldier was part of a joint British and Afghan special forces operation launched against a Taliban base in northern Afghanistan, the Daily Star reported.

The commandos involved in the operation successfully destroyed the base, but several Taliban, including a high-value senior commander, were able to flee into an underground cave complex.

When no Afghan commandos volunteered to enter the tunnels, the SAS soldier took it upon himself to complete the mission. . .

For 30 minutes, he relied on sound, smell and touch to track and kill six terrorists in the pitch-black, suffocating environment. . .

The soldier, an Iraq veteran, called the 30-minute fight the most difficult of his military career. For at least an hour after returning above ground, the solider was unable to speak due to his level of distress. (Read more from “British special forces soldier killed six Taliban in pitch-black, Viet Cong-style tunnel fight” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Anti-U.S. Leftist Expected to Become Next Mexican President

/0 Comments/in , /by

Amid the national hysteria over American immigration and border security policy, many appear to be missing the potential massive impact that the coming elections in Mexico will have on these policies, along with the impact the election will have on U.S.-Mexico relations and the cooperation that is ultimately needed to end the crisis at the southern border.

Mexicans will head to the ballot box on July 1 to elect a new president. According to polling, far-left politician Andrés Manuel López Obrador is the clear favorite to lock up the presidency. Recent polls show that he consistently garners over 50 percent of expected voters’ support. His closest rival, Ricardo Anaya, registers around 25 percent support on average in recent polls.

López Obrador is not only a committed leftist, but he appears to be fiercely anti-American. As someone who rose through the political ranks attached to communist and socialist revolutionary politics, he has been described as the ideological “twin” of radical leftist British politician Jeremy Corbyn.

On the campaign trail, the front-runner has branded himself as a fierce nationalist and populist who wants to distance his country from the U.S. His leftist nationalism has drawn comparisons to the rhetoric of the late Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez.

López Obrador has in the past pledged to stop all security cooperation with the United States. During the Trump presidency, his anti-American rhetoric has only increased.

In January, he pledged that if he were elected, he would put President Trump “in his place.” The next month, he said he would seek United Nations intervention to stop the United States from securing its southern border with Mexico.

“If he insists on building the wall, we’re going to turn to the United Nations to defend the rights of Mexicans. I’m conscious of my historic responsibility,” López Obrador said in a February debate.

“Mexico and its people will not be the piñata of any foreign government,” López Obrador said in a May speech targeting the United States. “It’s not with walls or use of force that you resolve social problems.”

However, in recent weeks, as his lead continues to climb, López Obrador has notably softened his tone.

Last week, López Obrador said he believes he can use diplomacy to convince the president to back off on his border wall policy.

It remains to be seen which ideology López Obrador will embrace should he become Mexico’s next president. Will his revolutionary impulses lead to the destruction of relations with the United States, or will his nationalist-centrist campaign result in a president who respects the sovereignty of his neighbor to the north? (For more from the author of “Anti-U.S. Leftist Expected to Become Next Mexican President” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Nikki Haley Pulls the U.S. out of the UN Human Rights Council With a Scathing Statement

/0 Comments/in , /by

US Ambassador the United Nations Nikki Haley offered a scathing assessment of the UN Human Rights Council as the announcement was made to pull out of the organization.

In a statement given alongside Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Haley derided the Human Rights Council as biased and counterproductive to the cause of human rights.

“Human rights abusers continue to serve on, and be elected to, the council,” Haley said. “The world’s most inhumane regimes continue to escape its scrutiny, and the council continues politicizing scapegoating of countries with positive human rights records in an attempt to distract from the abusers in its ranks.”

“When a so-called Human Rights Council cannot bring itself to address the massive abuses in Venezuela and Iran, and it welcomes the Democratic Republic of Congo as a new member,” she continued, “the council ceases to be worthy of its name.

“Such a council, in fact, damages the cause of human rights,” she concluded.

(Read more from “Nikki Haley Pulls the U.S. out of the UN Human Rights Council With a Scathing Statement” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Christian Population in This Country Has Declined by 1 Million Since 2002

/0 Comments/in , /by

. . .”We have a proverb,” Athra Kado told the Washington Free Beacon. “I will not believe it unless I see it with my own eyes.”

Kado is from Alqosh, a town in the Nineveh Plains of Iraq. He leads Alqosh’s branch of the Assyrian Democratic Movement, a political party advocating for Assyrian rights in Iraq. He also directs the media center for the Nineveh Plain Protection Units, a military force allied with the Iraqi government that provides security in the southern region of the Nineveh Plains for predominantly Christian communities.

Fewer than 250,000 Christians are estimated to still live in Iraq, a decline of approximately one million people since 2002. Most live in the Nineveh Plains and Iraqi Kurdistan Region. . .

Rebuilding efforts have begun, but progress is slow and uneven. The Nineveh Reconstruction Committee states that over eight thousand families have returned to the Nineveh Plains—still less than half of the number of families living there prior to 2014. Moreover, less than 40 percent of all properties have been rebuilt.

In some places, few Christians have returned. Only two families have come back to the town of Batnaya. Ines San Martin of Crux reported that “there’s virtually nothing to go back to, raising the question of why any of its former residents would ever want to return.” (Read more from “Christian Population in This Country Has Declined by 1 Million Since 2002” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Latino Soccer Fans – Especially Mexicans – Love to Call Opposing Players Homosexuals, but Then Get Fined by Fifa PC Police

/0 Comments/in , /by

By The Guardian. You can say this for Mexican soccer fans: they’ve managed to turn one of football’s least dramatic moments into one of its more controversial … The pattern is familiar. The opponent’s goalkeeper lines up a goalkick and the chant begins: “Ehhhh…” Then Mexican fans’ voices rise in unison until the kick prompts a cry of “puto!”

The term is homophobic slang for a male sex worker. And its use by fans at matches from Mexico City to California and now Russia continues to give Fifa and the Mexican federation headaches. On Monday, Fifa announced it has opened a disciplinary procedure against Mexico after the chants were heard during El Tri’s victory over Germany. . .

The origins of the chant in Mexico are hazy, but it started at club level before going international. Two well-known Mexico keepers – Oswaldo Sánchez and Óscar Perez – are said to have been among the first targets of the chant at club level in the mid-00s. The chant occurred sporadically at the 2010 World Cup, but the 2014 tournament in Brazil brought it to a new level. ESPN and Univision offered disclaimers when it was picked up on their broadcasts, and columnists and writers called for its end.

Lamenting Fifa’s perceived inaction on the issue in 2014, Slate’s Juliana Jiménez Jaramillo wrote: “They can abstractly consider what the word means, but they don’t understand the visceral gut punch you feel when you hear a slur in your native language. The Mexican team’s officials, on the other hand, know exactly what puto means. At the very least, they could give a symbolic statement denouncing it, even if it still takes decades for the fans to catch up.” (Read more from “Latino Soccer Fans – Especially Mexicans – Love to Call Opposing Players Homosexuals, but Then Get Fined by Fifa PC Police” HERE)

_____________________________________________

Safe House for LGBT World Cup Fans Is Shuttered in Russia

By Advocate. A safe space for LGBT fans of the World Cup was shuttered on the eve of the international sporting event in Russia.

Football Against Racism in Europe (FARE), an international human rights group that fights discrimination in sports, said its Diversity House program was evicted from its St. Petersburg location prior to the games.

“They asked us to leave the place very rudely, switched off the electricity and they explained nothing to us,” a spokesperson told the BBC. (Read more from “Safe House for LGBT World Cup Fans Is Shuttered in Russia” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Trump Says He’s Not Calling Kim out on Human Rights – This Is Why

/0 Comments/in , /by

On Friday, President Trump was asked by the press about his obvious unwillingness to call out North Korean dictator Kim Jung Un on his brutal human rights violations. His answer: he doesn’t want your children to die in a nuclear hellstorm. Because apparently, that’s the binary choice: either massage a tinpot dictator, or he’ll fire nuclear weapons at us. Never mind that presidents have excoriated the Kim family’s human rights record for decades; never mind that President Trump himself spoke in heartbreaking terms about North Korea’s human rights violations in January, at the State of the Union Address, where he touted a North Korean escapee who had been crippled by the juche state. No, if Trump doesn’t flatter Kim now, your kids will end up like the kids at the playground in the dream sequence from Terminator 2.

(Read more from “Trump Says He’s Not Calling Kim out on Human Rights – This Is Why” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

New Study: Earth’s Biggest Ice Sheet Unharmed During Warmer Period in History

/0 Comments/in , /by

Antarctica’s eastern ice sheet was stable for millions of years during the Pliocene warm period when atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations were about the same as today, according to a new study.

The study on the Earth’s largest ice sheet surviving a period scientists believe was warmer than modern times was published in the journal Nature, but got little media attention, especially when compared to a study published the same day in the very same journal alleging Antarctic ice melt had tripled from ten years ago. . .

Shakun’s study found that while portions of Antarctica’s ice sheets retreated, the eastern portion proved to be very resilient during the warm period between 2.6 million and 5.3 million years ago.

“Based on this evidence from the Pliocene, today’s current carbon dioxide levels are not enough to destabilize the land-based ice on the Antarctic continent,” Shakun said in a statement.

Shakun’s team analyzed ice cores, looking for isotopes that point to interaction between glacial sediment and cosmic rays. They only found trace amounts, suggesting ice cover persisted through past warm periods. (Read more from “New Study: Earth’s Biggest Ice Sheet Unharmed During Warmer Period in History” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

After Trump’s Relentless Hammering, Trudeau Just Caved and Denounced Iran

/0 Comments/in , /by

. . .[President Donald Trump is] relentlessly hammering the Islamic Republic of Iran for its support for terrorism and its own nuclear weapons programs. And despite criticism, there are signs it’s paying off, even among some Trump critics.

After the weekend’s G-7 summit of leading industrialized nations ended with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau engaging in a very public dispute with Trump over trade, that same Trudeau abruptly reversed his government’s course toward the mullahs in Tehran to one that’s much more in line with Trump’s position. . .

Led by a vote from the prime minister himself, Canada’s ruling Liberal Party voted in the country’s parliament on Tuesday to support a Conservative Party motion calling on the government to halt moves toward normalizing relations with Iran. . .

“Trudeau campaigned on restoring diplomatic relations with Iran, and this motion calls for the government to abandon its current plan and immediately cease any and all negotiations or discussion with the Islamic Republic of Iran to restore diplomatic relations.

“So what Trudeau did by standing up in support of an opposition MP’s mere motion was to signal a complete change in the Canadian government’s Iran policy. What had previously been characterized as a policy of appeasement now appears to be one rooted in toughness and holding the regime to account for their conduct.” (Read more from “After Trump’s Relentless Hammering, Trudeau Just Caved and Denounced Iran” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

International Group Confirms Sarin, Chlorine Used in Attack on Syrian City

/0 Comments/in , /by

By The Blaze. The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons released a new report on Wednesday that said sarin and chlorine gases were “very likely” used as chemical weapons in a Syrian city on March 24-25, 2017.

The OPCW is an international organization that serves as the “implementing body of the Chemical Weapons Convention” of 1997. The OPCW is made up of 192 member states, including Syria, which signed the the agreement in 2013. . .

The report from the OPCW Fact-Finding Mission confirmed that sarin gas was “very likely used in the south of Ltamenah, Syrian Arab Republic, on 24 March 2017.” It also concluded that chlorine was “very likely used as a chemical weapon at Ltamenah Hospital and the surrounding area on 25 March 2017.”

Ltamenah, or Latamneh, is a village in northern Syria. According to reports, at least three people were killed and 32 were injured by the attack on March 25, in which a helicopter belonging to Syria’s air force dropped a barrel bomb containing chlorine gas on a hospital.

Under current rules, the OPCW can only tell if a chemical attack has taken place and not speculate on who caused it. The OPCW used to be able to assign blame, as part of a joint UN-OPCW mandate, but Russia vetoed the mandate’s renewal in November last year. (Read more from “International Group Confirms That Assad Likely Used Sarin, Chlorine in Attack on Syrian City” HERE)

____________________________________________________

Syria War: OPCW Says Sarin Was Used in March 2017 Attack

By BBC. The global chemical weapons watchdog says the nerve agent Sarin and chlorine are very likely to have been used in attacks on a Syrian village last year.

The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons concluded Sarin was used as a weapon in the south of rebel-held Latamina on 24 March 2017, and chlorine at its hospital the next day.

It did not assign blame for the incidents, in line with its mandate.

But activists said at the time the area was under attack by government forces.

The government has repeatedly denied ever using chemical weapons. (Read more from “Syria War: OPCW Says Sarin Was Used in March 2017 Attack” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.