Obamagate: the suspicion Obama was spying on Trump
In the United States, Donald Trump has accused Barack Obama of conspiring against his administration in the final two weeks of the former president transitioning out of the White House. The closure OF the Michael Flynn case may mark the opening of a new one: Obamagate. The year that began with Trump's impeachment attempt is now evolving in ways no one would have imagined.
Hoping for a messianic vaccine is dangerous, immoral, and anti-scientific
If it is possible to develop a vaccine for Covid-19, it should be done respecting the criteria that guarantee the absence of toxicity and harmfulness. The failure of similar efforts to create a vaccine for SARS should lead to prudence. From this point of view, developing a vaccine that is safe requires at least five years of testing, not five months. Then there is the question of the use of aborted fetuses in vaccine development and an unacceptable utilitarian logic. The very strong media pressure in favour of the vaccine cannot become an alibi for superseding non-negotiable moral principles.
The (real) FBI plot against Donald Trump
There is a conspiracy that oddly does not make the headlines, even though it is shocking and reasonably well documented. It’s about a plot hatched in the upper levels of the FBI, the America’s federal police, to frame President Donald Trump at the start of his administration while ruining the life of his former national security advisor, General Michael Flynn.
The virus does not stop wars, but reduces military spending
The Coronavirus pandemic has not stopped the bloodiest conflicts, such as ongoing fighting in Libya and Afghanistan. The collapse of economies is likely to trigger greater antagonism between countries. Meanwhile, the scarcity of resources seems to demand cutting military spending, as South Korea has done. However, this is a choice that could boomerang in terms of national economies, employment, and defense.
India’s cultural problem with child rape
A new episode of the rape of a girl in India has brought the spotlight back to a serious problem in a country which reported 33.977 cases of rape last year, an average of 93 per day, despite the fact that rape is punishable with the death penalty. The victims include even the tiniest children. But little will be resolved as long as the widespread mentality about the abortion of girls and the marriage of daughters does not change.
How Taiwan, boycotted by the WHO, beat the virus. And without a lockdown
Despite being internationally isolated, unacknowledged and boycotted by the WHO to curry favour with Beijing, Taiwan has managed to prevent the spread of the Covid-19 virus and contain the epidemic more successfully than any other country in the world. Taiwan took countermeasures when China still didn’t admit to the epidemic. As of Today, Taiwanese authorities have registered a mere 6 deaths out of a total population of 23 million without ever forcing the island’s inhabitants (except those infected) to stay at home. In the following interview, Andrea Sing-Ying Lee, the Taiwan (Republic of China) diplomatic representative in Italy, reveals his small democratic nation’s secrets of success in containing the coronavirus.
What will poor countries do if the “rich” ones get sick?
Even in the midst of the pandemic Oxfam hasn’t changed its tune: it is asking rich countries to help poor countries fight the coronavirus. But the NGO doesn’t ask why poor countries are poor. The answer lies in the tribalism, corruption and violence of their ruling classes. It would do better to ask them for the necessary funds.
It’s time to reconsider what the Magisterium has taught about globalization
Everything that is happening as a result of the coronavirus necessitates a reconsideration of globalisation, including what the Magisterium has said about this theme. John Paul II and Benedict XVI were prudent, but the present pontiff has thrown himself fully into globalism. The next pope will need to review the entire file. Here’s how.
If Ireland is anti-Catholic, the Church is also to blame
The origin of the Irish Church's crisis of credibility is not due to the sexual abuse scandal, but of a moralistic and sentimental conception of faith inculcated in the distant past. And by an educational system that disembodied faith from reality. Catholic writer John Waters describes what took Ireland to secularisation at lightning speed.
Today’s coronavirus crisis means future change
When the coronavirus emergency is over, nothing will ever be the same again. The present crisis reveals the emptiness of ideologies like naturalism and globalism and the disintegration of the European Union; it asks us to reconsider our concept of the common good, the subsidiary function of credit, and the relationship between Church and State. What is happening today should become a reflection on how to reconstruct the world after the crisis. Here is a broad reflection by Msgr. Crepaldi based on the social doctrine of the Church.
- THE INTEGRAL DOCUMENT
Taiwan, Singapore and S. Korea: virus is contained not personal freedom
Totalitarian China is increasingly referred to as an example for how to contain the coronavirus epidemic. While wanting to remain a democratic country, Italy is nevertheless is trying to imitate the Chinese. Never mind that China is a highly questionable model, it is not the only Asian nation to have effectively tackled the epidemic. Other Asian countries, such as Taiwan (Democratic China) and Singapore have managed to stymie further infections. Meanwhile South Korea, one of the hardest hit countries, has managed to slow down outbreaks like, if not more than, China. Yet, none of these governments have used totalitarian methods nor have they have blocked entire regions or entire economic sectors as is happening in Italy.
The government wants money the Church receives from its citizens
The more the Church is attacked, the more support it receives from its citizens. This is the case in Spain where 32.32% of recent tax returns showed contributions made to the Catholic Church for a total of 284 million euros. This record amount has proven intolerable to Sánchez-Iglesias’s socialist-communist government, now resorting to the Court of Auditors to cast suspicion on the Church’s funds received from taxpayers.
