VATICAN - EU heads of state and government are planning to meet with Pope Francis in Rome on 24 March, ahead of a summit expected to provide a vision for the future of the EU after Brexit, diplomats told EURACTIV.com.
VATICAN - Pope Francis is set to receive 27 European Union heads of State and government at a private audience in the Vatican’s Sala Regia on Friday evening. The encounter takes place on the eve of the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Rome. Leaders will be joined at the audience by representatives of EU institutions. These include Antonio Tajani, President of the European Parliament, Donald Tusk, President of the European Council, and Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission. Pope Francis will address the group after speeches made by Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni and Antonio Tajani.
VATICAN - Pope Francis will meet with the leaders of all EU nations at the Vatican on March 24 ahead of the bloc’s special summit in Rome, Vatican sources said Thursday. The March 25 summit will mark the 60th anniversary of the bloc’s founding treaty. The pontiff will meet the leaders in the afternoon, the sources said. The pope has already received EU leaders at the Vatican in May 2016 when he was presented with the bloc’s Charlemagne Prize for his contribution to European unification. In a speech at that ceremony he called on them to “tear down the walls” and build a fairer society. Invoking the memory of the EU founding fathers’ pursuit of integration in the aftermath of World War II, the pontiff said they inspired because they had “dared to change radically the models” that had led to war. The pope also made a speech to the European Parliament in Strasbourg in November 2014.
EUROPE - On March 25, 1957, leaders of six nations – Belgium, the Federal Republic of Germany, France, Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands – met in Rome and signed two treaties that gave birth to the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community. In 1993, the EEC became part of what has since been known as the European Union (EU), and, since Rome, its membership has more than quadrupled.
JAPAN - A Japanese Health Ministry survey released this week found that nearly one out of four citizens has considered suicide, with more women admitting to the impulse than men but higher suicide rates among men than women. A plurality of those who admitted to considering ending their lives said they changed their mind by focusing on work or “hobbies.”
USA - Over the years, many people have been shown that someday a giant earthquake will cause significant portions of California to fall into the ocean. But up until now, most scientists have disputed the idea that this could ever actually happen. Well, now all of that has changed. According to a brand new study, a megaquake along the west coast “could plunge large parts of California into the sea almost instantly”.
UK - Five people have died and at least 40 were injured after an attacker drove a car along a pavement in Westminster, stabbed a policeman and was shot dead by police in the grounds of Parliament. The dead officer has been named as PC Keith Palmer, 48, a husband and father.
UK - Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the terror attack which killed three people and injured as many as 40 others in London yesterday. Islamic State says it was responsible for the London terror attack which left three people dead in Westminster, the group's Amaq news agency said today. Their statement said: "The perpetrator of the attacks yesterday in front of the British parliament in London is an Islamic State soldier and he carried out the operation in response to calls to target citizens of the coalition". ISIS, which has controlled parts of Iraq and Syria in recent years, has lost territory this year to local forces in those countries supported by a US led military coalition.
USA - Donald Trump has spoken to Theresa May to offer Britain the full cooperation and support of the United States in responding to the Westminster attack. The US president, who vowed to keep America safe from terrorism as one of his core election pledges, praised "the effective response of security forces and first responders".
TURKEY - People in Europe won’t be able to “walk safely” and freely on the streets if they don’t change their current attitudes, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has warned, amid a deepening diplomatic row over the cancellation of Turkish rallies in the EU. “If Europe continues this way, no European in any part of the world can walk safely on the streets. We, as Turkey, call on Europe to respect human rights and democracy,” Erdogan told a group of local journalists in Ankara on Wednesday, Reuters reported.
USA - Liberals are ecstatic that a judge in Hawaii is writing immigration policy for the entire country, and that policy is: We have no right to tell anyone that he can’t live in America. (Unless they’re Christians — those guys we can keep out.) The goal of liberals is for the poor of the world to have a constitutional right to come here whenever they want.
EUROPE - As Techdirt has reported, the election of Donald Trump has turned the world of US trade deals upside-down. The US officially pulled out of TPP, although some still hope it might come back in some form. TAFTA/TTIP seems to be on ice, but Trump's choice for US trade representative has just said he is open to resuming negotiations, so it's not clear what might happen there (or with TISA).
USA - Suppliers to Sears Holdings Corp told Reuters they are doubling down on defensive measures, such as reducing shipments and asking for better payment terms, to protect against the risk of nonpayment as the company warned about its finances. The company's disclosure turned the focus to its vendors as tension is expected to mount ahead of the key fourth-quarter selling season amid rising concern about a potential bankruptcy, they said. The storied American retailer, whose roots date back to 1886, said on Tuesday that "substantial doubt exists related to the company's ability to continue as a going concern."
USA - The US utilities that are clients of Toshiba Corp's nuclear power plant construction subsidiary, Westinghouse Electric Co LLC, have hired advisers to prepare for its potential bankruptcy, according to people familiar with the matter. The move comes as Toshiba sees Westinghouse's bankruptcy as increasingly likely. The Japanese conglomerate has hired restructuring consulting firm Berkeley Research Group LLC and law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP to help defend it against bankruptcy claims, the people said on Wednesday. Scana Corp and Southern Co, the power utilities which hired Westinghouse to build the first nuclear power plants in the United States in more than 30 years, have also hired restructuring advisers, the people said.
INDIA - Parrots flying high on drugs are annoying farmers by plundering their poppy fields to feed their opium addiction. The drug-addicted birds sit perched in wait until the morphine-rich area is exposed by workers slitting open the flowers' pods to help them ripen. The parrots then swoop down in silence into the opium fields - having learned not to squawk - and frantically nibble off the stalks below the pod before they are spotted. This phenomenon was first reported in 2015, but this year it has spread across to other regions for the first time. Farmers now claim they are getting warnings from the Government's narcotics department - which controls opium farming - over their reduced yields.
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Today we find the Church of God in a “wilderness of religious confusion!”
The confusion is not merely around the Church – within the religions of the world outside – but WITHIN the very heart of The True Church itself!
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