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Post-Brexit trade between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland boomed in February, although imports from Great Britain were hit hard. Goods imports from Britain were down by more than half (-53%) in February this year compared to last year, the Republic's Central Statistics Office (CSO) said yesterday. But imports from Northern Ireland almost doubled (+95%) in the same period. Exports to England, Scotland and Wales held up better, falling by just 11% in February 2021 compared to last year. But exports to Northern Ireland were up by 38%. The CSO said Irish goods imports from Britain fell by 53%, or...

A data breach at a Christian crowdfunding website has revealed that serving police officers and public officials have donated money to fundraisers for accused vigilante murderers, far-right activists, and fellow officers accused of shooting black Americans. In many of these cases, the donations were attached to their official email addresses, raising questions about the use of public resources in supporting such campaigns.

In a landmark vote, French lawmakers have unanimously adopted a legislation that outlaws sex with a child under the age of 15 as rape. Under the new legislation, approved on Thursday, sex with children below the age of 15 will be punishable by up to 20 years in jail, unless the age gap between the partners is small. While the age of consent in the country was previously 15, prosecutors had to prove the intercourse was non-consensual in order to get a rape conviction. […] A so-called “Romeo and Juliet” clause will allow for the possibility of consensual sexual relations...

“Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues without right” (Proverbs 16:8).

My latest song. Its appearance immediately after Tax Day is just a coincidence.

Shown in a now-deleted video on a Columbia student’s Twitter account, Professor Dinah PoKempner, who appears to be white, used the n-word multiple times in her International Human Rights Law class. The video showed Professor PoKempner’s Zoom box with her name attached in the lower left-hand corner with her using the slur continuously. PoKempner also mimicked a stutter and aspects of AAVE-speech. She appeared to be quoting something, as she paused and said “and then he said,” before launching into another 30 seconds of repeating the slur. PoKempner is an adjunct professor at the University’s Institute for Human Rights. PoKempner...

Mary Murtaugh is a recently retired nurse who says she has never been shy about promoting good health. She wasn’t shy the day she asked her favorite grocery store cashier if she’d been vaccinated. The cashier was emphatic. No. And she wasn’t going to be. After listening to the cashier explain that she’d had a bad reaction to a flu shot, Murtaugh persisted. “I told her that I would be worried if she contracted COVID,” Murtaugh says, and the clerk promised to think about it. Promising to think about something is often no more than a polite deflection. But the...

This article contains disturbing information about human dismemberment. Last week, legal accountability group Judicial Watch dropped a bombshell: a nearly 600-page report proving the U.S. government has been buying and trafficking “fresh” aborted baby body parts. These body parts, purchased by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to “humanize” mice and test biologic drugs in scientific experiments, came from babies up to 24-weeks-old gestation, just weeks from being born. While Americans may be used to hearing pro-lifers beat the warning drum on abortion groups harvesting baby bodies and selling them for research, (who hasn’t heard of the lawsuit against David...

In this 2013 image, U.S. Sens. Mark Warner, left, and Tim Kaine talk to each other on their way to Senate Recording Studio aboard a small subway at U.S. Capitol in Washington. On the eve of the anniversary of the worst mass shooting in Virginia history, Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, both Virginia Democrats, are asking Congress to follow the state’s lead in enacting restrictions on the purchase and use of firearms. Kaine, who was governor when a lone gunman killed 32 students and teachers at Virginia Tech in 2007, joined with Warner, his predecessor as governor, to introduce...

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Japan's government announced on Tuesday (April 13) that it will dump more than a million tons of contaminated wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean, beginning in two years. Roughly 1.25 million tons (1.13 million metric tons) of water have accumulated around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in northeastern Japan since 2011, after a magnitude-9.0 earthquake and resulting tsunami devastated the region. The twin disasters killed nearly 20,000 people, according to NPR, and caused meltdowns in three of the plant's six reactors, triggering the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.

An elderly Mexican-American woman was badly beaten by a racist bus passenger who mistook her for an Asian-American, the victim's son said. The 70-year-old victim, named only as Becky by her son Pete, suffered a concussion, a broken nose, swollen eyes and had her hair pulled out last Friday. She was attacked while on her way to go grocery shopping in Los Angeles' Eagle Rock neighborhood. Los Angeles police arrested 23-year-old Yasmine Beasley shortly afterwards on suspicion of the attack, KTLA 5 reported. Beasley allegedly attacked the 70-year-old as she was trying to get off the bus after calling her...

After a few months of back-and-forth legal battles between the Arizona state senate and the Maricopa County board of supervisors, the ballots in Arizona’s most populous county are going to be audited beginning in approximately one week, April 22nd. However, it is my opinion the Board of Supervisors is intentionally trying to set up an issue with chain-of-custody to nullify the results of the audit. Maricopa County officials refused to allow the audit to take place in the tabulations center where the ballots are currently stored {Go Deep}. As a result the ballot audit will take place at the Arizona...

A group of House Democrats were expected to announce a bill later in the day that would expand the nation’s top court from nine seats to 13, with members upset that six of the current members were nominated by Republican presidents, including three Trump appointees. Asked if she would commit to bringing the bill to a vote, Pelosi said, “no.”

Blue Origin launched and landed New Shepard rocket on Wednesday, April 14 at 10:56 AM CDT (15:56 UTC) from Corn Ranch Spaceport, Texas. This was Blue Origin’s 15th uncrewed flight of its New Shepard rocket. New Shepard is designed to take people and payloads to suborbital space and back. It is expected to start sending space tourists this year. Ticket reservations are still on hold.

Multiple people shot at Indianapolis FedEx facility: reportMultiple people were shot a FedEx facility in Indianapolis late Thursday night, TV station WRTV reported. Police were called to the scene at around 11 p.m., the outlet reported. Officials declared the scene a ““mass casualty, Level 1,” TV station WISH reported. Police did not immediately have information on how many people were shot or their conditions. The FedEx facility is near Indianapolis International Airport. This is a developing story.

Family members of the murdered and two survivors of the September 11 attacks wrote to Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines on Wednesday asking her to make public a 16-page FBI report of its investigation of Saudi government agents in the U.S. who helped the 9/11 hijackers. The FBI has refused to release the report, and a federal judge in New York sided with the government in November after then-U.S. Attorney General William Barr and then-acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell broadly invoked the state secrets privilege to block the release of that report and other FBI records about...

An Army investigation into why low-flying D.C. National Guard helicopters hovered above Black Lives Matter protesters last June determined that while the use of the helicopters was "reasonable," there were performance shortcomings that day.Those performance issues have resulted in disciplinary actions against certain individuals, according to Army officials. The investigation has also led the Army to implement changes in procedures for when Guard helicopters can be used for crowd control.The D.C. National Guard's investigation was triggered by the outcry that followed the use of medical evacuation helicopters that hovered above Black Lives Matter protesters on the night of June 1,...

LONDON (Reuters) - The ruling Scottish National Party pledged on Thursday to hold an independence referendum by the end of 2023, a step that could fracture the United Kingdom by ripping apart the 314-year union between England and Scotland. If there was another referendum and the Scots voted out, it would mark the biggest shock to the United Kingdom since Irish independence a century ago - just as London grapples with the impact of both Brexit and the COVID-19 crisis.