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The EU has threatened to use "all the measures at its disposal" after the United Kingdom signalled it would introduce legislation to change the post-Brexit status of Northern Ireland. Britain says its move to change the legally binding treaty — an apparent breach of international law — is an insurance policy in case it can’t reach an agreement with the bloc to end a long-running dispute over post-Brexit trade rules. ... The announcement drew a sharp response from the EU, which has long accused Prime Minister Boris Johnson of trying to wriggle out of a deal that his government negotiated...

Some of the music of my life to open up this week. Here I am your currently sober drunk host embarking on a journey of media excellence... Joe Biden's Department of Homeland Security with a "Disinformation Board"? The 21st Century Hi-Tech Fairness Doctrine. It's time for a Drive-By Media Update this song from 40 years ago one of many provocative tunes that hit the world of Contemporary Christian Music courtesy of Steve Taylor and this one's for you F. Chuck Todd... The Drive-Bys gave us 69 days of Ukraine in all of our orifaces and now they want abortions... But...

A century after its fraught foundation, Northern Ireland looks set for a constitutional earthquake this week with the pro-Irish party Sinn Fein on course to win regional elections. Apart from periods of direct rule by London, pro-UK unionists have monopolised power ever since Britain carved out a Protestant-majority statelet in 1921, when the rest of Ireland achieved self-rule. But pollsters expect victory on Thursday for Sinn Fein, which was once the political arm of the paramilitary IRA, in polls for the devolved assembly in Belfast. The party took the deputy leadership in a power-sharing deal with unionists when Northern Ireland...

US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas warning about "bullying" saying: "The events of earlier this week is one symptom of that"... There's good news to report from Idaho in the case of Baby Cyrus Anderson ripped from his mother's arms on the night of March 11th... President Trump speaking tonight at campaign rally in Greensburg, Pennsylvania near Pittsburgh. Dr. Mehmet Oz, endorsed by President Trump in the Republican Primary for US Senate, spoke at the rally before Mr. Trump and was brought to up to speak again during Trump's speech. Regarding Oz Trump said: "they're spending millions of dollars trying...

Elvis Costello has announced he’ll no longer perform his 1979 hit song “Oliver’s Army” is concert. The rocker explained his decision during an interview with The Telegraph, noting that it stems from the lyric, “Only takes one itchy trigger / One more widow, one less white n_____." “If I wrote that song today, maybe I’d think twice about [the lyric],” Costello admitted, before noting that the slur was historically accurate. “That’s what my grandfather was called in the British army — it’s historically a fact — but people hear that word go off like a bell and accuse me of...

Plans to build a bridge or tunnel between Scotland and Northern Ireland have been ruled out due to forecasted costs and engineering challenges. A study examining if such a project was possible is expected to advise against proceeding with any proposals when it is released next week. The BBC understands the government will agree with the report's recommendation. The Telegraph first reported that transport expert Sir Peter Hendy, who was asked by the government to examine connections between the different parts of the UK, had concluded the project was not currently viable. A government source said Sir Peter had examined...

Northern Ireland's health minister is suing singer Van Morrison for calling him "dangerous" over his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Northern Ireland’s health minister is suing Van Morrison after the singer called him “very dangerous” for his handling of coronavirus restrictions. The Belfast-born singer opposes restrictions to curb the spread of the virus, and has released several songs criticizing lockdowns. He denounced Northern Ireland Health Minister Robin Swann during a gathering at Belfast’s Europa Hotel in June after a Morrison concert was canceled at the last minute because of virus restrictions. The defamation suit relates to three incidents in which Morrison criticized Swann, calling him “a fraud” and “very dangerous.” …

Northern Ireland is continuing to push back against the British government’s attempted expansion of abortion in the country. Society for the Protection of Unborn Children attorney John Larkin QC stated directly that Northern Ireland has no obligation to comply with the Secretary of State’s edicts directing the country to provide abortions. According to News Letter, he argued that “the Minister of the Crown cannot […] boss people about unless the law gives them power to do it, and requires people to act in accordance with his edicts. It doesn’t. There is simply no duty to comply with these, and that...

The UK government always intended to “ditch” the Northern Ireland protocol, Boris Johnson’s former adviser Dominic Cummings has claimed. In a string of tweets, Cummings said the flawed Brexit deal had been a way to get out of the electoral doldrums and “whack [Jeremy] Corbyn”, and “of course” the government should be allowed to “sometimes break deals… like every other state does”. His remarks have caused alarm in Dublin, where the former taoiseach Leo Varadkar, who negotiated the Northern Ireland protocol with Johnson at a meeting in Wirral in October 2019, said that, if true, they showed the government could...

Nancy Pelosi, America's third most powerful politician, warned today that a breakdown in the talks over the Northern Ireland Protocol would be 'problematic' for a post-Brexit UK-US trade deal. The Speaker of the US House of Representatives, who is currently visiting Britain, has been critical of Prime Minister Boris Johnson's approach to Northern Ireland following the UK's exit from the European Union. The pair discussed the issue in Downing Street yesterday and Mrs Pelosi today expanded on her views about the talks underway between the UK and Brussels to resolve issues ... ....Mrs Pelosi, 81, said she felt it would...

Pupils in the same class as a positive Covid case "will not routinely be asked to isolate and book a test", ministers have said. ... The move brings Northern Ireland into line with England, Scotland and Wales. Teaching unions had called for the move ... Low risk.. Studies have shown that the overall risk of children becoming severely ill or dying from Covid is extremely low. Mr Swann and Ms McIlveen also said that there was evidence that the "vast majority of those identified as school close contacts and sent home to isolate during the 2020/21 school year did not...

Lord Trimble has urged Joe Biden to drop his support for the Northern Ireland Protocol, warning the post-Brexit border rules “risk a return to sectarian strife”. The architect of the Good Friday Agreement accused the White House of “contributing to the damage being caused” to the peace treaty by siding with the European Union on the issue. He said in a letter to the US President that the “political promises of the Belfast Agreement have been flippantly dismissed” because of the protocol. The protocol, agreed as part of the Brexit deal, requires checks on goods traveling from GB to Northern...

The First Minister of the Northern Ireland Assembly says he has sought legal advice on how to resist the imposition of full abortion services by Westminster. Paul Givan, who is a DUP member of the Legislative Assembly, said that he is assessing his options in a bid to stop the Secretary of State, Brandon Lewis, from using new powers to insist that full abortion services are rolled out in the region at the behest of the British parliament. Mr. Lewis is seeking to direct Stormont to roll out abortion services by March despite previously being on record as saying he...

Northern Ireland police faced a barrage of petrol bombs and rocks on Thursday, an AFP journalist said, as violence once again flared in Belfast despite pleas for calm. Riot police on the republican side of the divided city were pelted with projectiles as they tried to prevent a crowd moving towards pro-UK unionists. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Irish counterpart Micheal Martin had earlier called for “calm” following days of violence that included a petrol-bomb attack on a moving bus. Martin and Johnson held telephone talks in which they stressed that “violence is unacceptable” and “called for calm”, the...

The violence is being blamed on escalating frustration over new post-Brexit trade barriers between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom. Gates were set alight on a “peace wall” — separating pro-Irish nationalist and pro-UK unionist communities since “the Troubles” began more than 50 years ago — as crowds threw gasoline bombs over it. Several hundred people gathered on both sides of a gate in the wall, “committing serious criminal offenses, both attacking police and attacking each other,” Police Service of Northern Ireland Assistant Chief Constable Jonathan Roberts said. Brexit disturbed the political balance in Northern Ireland, where...

Masked loyalists are seen after hijacking and setting a car on fire at the Cloughfern roundabout in Newtownabbey, Belfast, Northern Ireland, Saturday, April 3, 2021. Masked men threw petrol bombs and hijacked cars in the Loyalist area North of Belfast. Loyalists and unionists are angry about post-Brexit trading arrangements which they claim have created barriers between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK. (Peter Morrison/PA via AP) The disturbances followed unrest Friday and Saturday in unionist areas in and around Belfast and Londonderry, also known as Derry, that saw cars set on fire and projectiles and gasoline bombs hurled...

Loyalist paramilitary groups have told the British and Irish governments they are withdrawing support for the Good Friday agreement in protest at Northern Ireland’s Irish Sea trade border with the rest of the UK. The Loyalist Communities Council, an umbrella group that represents the views of the UVF, UDA and Red Hand Commando, wrote a letter to Boris Johnson and Ireland’s taoiseach, Micheál Martin, warning of “permanent destruction” of the 1998 peace agreement without changes to post-Brexit arrangements for Northern Ireland. The letter said unionist opposition to the Northern Ireland protocol – the part of the Brexit deal that keeps...

FARC, whose leaders are going on trial, is one of the many murderous offshoots of that ‘real socialism’ the Left insists ‘has never been tried.’A special court has been convened in Colombia to try eight leaders of the Marxist-Leninist terrorist outfit known as FARC — Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia — on war crimes and crimes against humanity charges. Perhaps justice will be done upon these eight — will it ever be done for their enablers in the United States and elsewhere?FARC is one of the many murderous offshoots of that “real socialism” that our leftist friends always insist “has...

Processed goods like jelly or gravy could be unavailable in NI at the end of the protocol grace period, according to Stormont's agriculture minister. Edwin Poots acknowledged Northern Ireland has plenty of homegrown produce, such as beef or potatoes. But he warned trimmings like Bisto or trifle could be missing from traditional Sunday dinners. He also stood by his claim that action was needed to avert "a major crisis" over food supplies. However, political opponents have accused him of scaremongering. Mr Poots said the official minute of a meeting he held with suppliers - at which he was told of...