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Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has been charged with historical sexual offences and has resigned as Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader. A 57-year-old woman has also been charged with aiding and abetting in connection with the alleged offences. They were both arrested on Thursday morning by PSNI detectives and were questioned before being charged on Thursday night. They are now due to appear in court next month. In a statement the DUP said: "The Party Chairman has received a letter from Sir Jeffrey Donaldson MP confirming that he has been charged with allegations of an historical nature and indicating that he is...

Much of the discussion has seemed like an egg-centered debate: soft or hard, but it won't be over easy. A soft Brexit means staying closely aligned with the EU on trade, and is favored by Britons who oppose leaving. Hard means a clean break, and that could cost an estimated 9% of GDP cumulatively, along with 450,000 jobs. Pro tip: If a Brexit discussion gets too detailed, scare the other party off by insisting that a hard exit would "force the BOE back to the ZLB with more QE." Just in case your bluff is called, that's Bank of England,...

British M.P.s passed amendments Tuesday to legalize abortion and homosexual “marriage” in Northern Ireland if the devolved Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont is not restored by October 21. The British parliament voted 332-99 on Labour M.P. Stella Creasy’s amendment to the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation) Bill to legalize abortion in Northern Ireland, the BBC reported. British M.P.s also voted 383-73 in favour of an amendment by Labour M.P. Conor McGinn to legalize homosexual “marriage” in the region, according to Extra.ie. Abortion is allowed in the United Kingdom up to 24 weeks but is illegal in Northern Ireland, allowed “only when...

Theresa May's hopes of a miraculous win on her deal suffered a heavy blow today as the DUP signalled it would rather accept a one year Brexit delay than ever vote for it. The Northern Irish party's Brexit spokesman Sammy Wilson said the Prime Minister's deal was a 'prison' for the UK locked by a key held by EU negotiator Michel Barnier. The intervention is devastating to Mrs May's bleak hopes of getting her EU divorce through Parliament. Downing Street had a glimmer of hope this morning when Brexiteer ringleader Jacob Rees-Mogg and other Eurosceptics signalled they are ready to...

The DUP’s Westminster leader Nigel Dodds has denounced Mrs May’s entire approach in a statement that all but guarantees her deal will not pass next week. The outcome of yesterday’s EU summit seems to have been the last straw. The DUP rejection also casts severe doubt on whether the confidence and supply arrangement that gave her a working majority can survive, at least under her leadership and without a hard Brexit prime minister succeeding her and able to deliver it. It may be that as the government casts around for an alternative to her deal, they are implicitly withdrawing from...

The Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, says that a case can be made that Theresa May's government has committed contempt of Parliament. A debate and vote will held tomorrow that would refer the matter to the standards committee of Parliament. A previous Parliament vote committed Prime Minister Theresa May's government to release in full all legal advice. MP's from all opposition parties plus the Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland, which supports the May government, called for the contempt process to be launched.....

Britain’s highest court on Wednesday said a Northern Irish bakery’s refusal to make a cake bearing a pro-gay slogan was not discriminatory in a ruling condemned by the customer, a gay rights activist, but hailed by the province’s main conservative party. Ashers Baking in Belfast was found guilty of discrimination in 2015 for refusing to make a cake for a customer iced with the words “Support Gay Marriage” because of the owners’ Christian beliefs. It failed in an appeal to the local courts in 2016; but the Supreme Court, the UK’s highest judicial body, overturned that decision on Wednesday, saying...

DUP leader Arlene Foster is rejecting pressure to introduce same-sex marriage and abortion in Northern Ireland, saying her support for traditional marriage and the unborn is resolute. Speaking on Monday, Mrs Foster expressed sadness that opponents of redefining marriage are branded ‘homophobic’ and ‘haters’. And following a separate meeting with pro-life supporters, she said the party would do everything in its power to uphold Northern Ireland’s current law on abortion. Westminster pressure Last week, a gay pride event in Belfast called for the introduction of same-sex marriage. The UK Government approved the flying of the LGBT ‘rainbow’ flag at an...

The website of Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party, which was founded by a Pro testant preacher-politician four-and-a-half decades ago, crashed as people worldwide began to surf the internet to find out about the party which is now set to hold the balance of power in the British government. So what is the DUP? (Photo: Reuters/Liam McBurney)Leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) Arlene Foster addresses journalists in Belfast, Northern Ireland, June 9, 2017.Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May returns to Downing Street with her husband Philip after traveling to Buckingham Palace to ask the Queen's permission to form a minority government,...

Ruth Davidson has been told by the prime minister that any Conservative deal with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) will not affect LGBTI rights. The Scottish Conservative leader, who is gay, plans to marry her partner in the near future. The DUP opposes same-sex marriage, with Northern Ireland the only part of the UK where it is not legal. Ms Davidson said she had been given an assurance that gay rights would not be eroded in return for DUP support. In a tweet sent on Friday afternoon, Ms Davidson highlighted a speech she made in Belfast about the importance of...

DUP leader Arlene Foster represents a new type of politician in Northern Ireland, and a new type of Unionism And so it came to pass that the Strong and Stable One turned out not to have such great judgement after all, and that the more the British electorate saw of her, the less they liked what they saw. If Theresa May has one achievement, it is this: she made the hitherto unelectable Jeremy Corbyn look electable; she gave him credibility; in this she rather resembles that other failure, Hillary Clinton, who made Trump electable. Remember her?While Mrs Clinton soon retired...

The future of the Catholic-Protestant power-sharing government in Northern Ireland is hanging by a slender thread with First Minister Peter Robinson’s decision Thursday to step down, along with all but one of his ministers, because of a series of disputes. Democratic Unionist leader Robinson left one party figure, Arlene Foster, in place as temporary first minister and finance minister, but the coalition government has been seriously weakened by developments and may ultimately be suspended, leading to a restoration of direct British rule from Westminster. The crisis stems in large part from a police finding that that Irish Republic Army dissidents...

Sinn Féin has emerged as the biggest party in Northern Ireland following the local government elections—but the DUP has claimed the greater number of council seats. The republican party claimed 24.1% of all first preference votes with the DUP on 23.1%. Both parties, however, saw their share of the vote slip with the DUP down by 4.1% and Sinn Féin marginally down by 0.7%. …

President Barack Obama was a pioneering contributor to the national subprime real estate bubble, and roughly half of the 186 African-American clients in his landmark 1995 mortgage discrimination lawsuit against Citibank have since gone bankrupt or received foreclosure notices. As few as 19 of those 186 clients still own homes with clean credit ratings, following a decade in which Obama and other progressives pushed banks to provide mortgages to poor African Americans. The startling failure rate among Obama’s private sector clients was discovered during The Daily Caller’s review of previously unpublished court information from the lawsuit that a young Obama...

A series of messages forwarded to The Daily Caller show a top aide to former Alaska Gov. and possible presidential candidate Sarah Palin mocking top political figures and even her boss’s own daughter, Bristol Palin. RedState.com founder and CNN contributor Erick Erickson is “a total douchebag,” wrote Palin speechwriter and domestic policy adviser Rebecca Mansour in a May 22, 2010, message. “Greasy dumb ass with a talent for self-promotion. He threw himself in at the Gov’s SC rally. Self-promotion.” (Erickson said South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley invited him to the rally). Mitt Romney supporters are “wacky as hell,” Mansour wrote,...

Dugway Proving Ground, in Utah’s western desert, was placed on lockdown Wednesday evening. Al Vogel, a public affairs specialist for the installation, would only say that the lockdown began at 5:24 p.m. Employees were not allowed to leave, and those coming to work were not allowed in. Vogel said there were no injuries, no damage and no threats reported at the proving ground. There were about 1,200 to 1,400 people at Dugway when the lockdown occurred. Dugway Proving Ground is a U.S. Army testing and training base in Tooele County where military weapons are tested.

The president was lofty. "We will move forward together, or not at all — for the challenges we face are bigger than party, and bigger than politics," he said in his State of the Union address. The official Republican response, too, aimed high. "Americans are skeptical of both political parties, and that skepticism is justified — especially when it comes to spending," said Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin. "So hold all of us accountable." And then there was Michele Bachmann. As the leader of the Tea Party Caucus in the House, the Minnesota Republican gave her own, unauthorized response to...

<p>HONOLULU – A privacy law that shields birth certificates has prompted Democratic Gov. Neil Abercrombie to abandon efforts to dispel claims that President Barack Obama was born outside Hawaii, his office says.</p> <p>State Attorney General David Louie told the governor that privacy laws bar him from disclosing an individual's birth documentation without the person's consent, Abercrombie spokeswoman Donalyn Dela Cruz said Friday.</p>

At 2:00 a.m. on Saturday—about eight hours before he allegedly killed six people and wounded 14, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), in Tucson—Jared Lee Loughner phoned an old and close friend with whom he had gone to high school and college. The friend, Bryce Tierney, was up late watching TV, but he didn't answer the call. When he later checked his voice mail, he heard a simple message from Loughner: "Hey man, it's Jared. Me and you had good times. Peace out. Later." That was it. But later in the day, when Tierney first heard about the Tucson massacre, he...

A magnitude 4.2 earthquake struck north-central Indiana on Thursday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The quake struck just before 8 a.m. ET and was three miles deep, according to the USGS. The epicenter was located about 15 miles east-southeast of Kokomo, 15 miles west-southwest from Marion and 50 miles north of Indianapolis.