Politics

The Catholic Church has softened its stance on contraception when faced with the threat imposed by the Zika virus. Pope Francis has given his blessings to the use of artificial contraception when it comes to the Zika virus and the damage it could cause an unborn fetus. The pope says that there is a clear moral difference between aborting a fetus and preventing a pregnancy, but has not gone as far as softening his stance on abortion of unwanted Zika-infected pregnancies. Pope Francis says that abortion “is an evil in and of itself, but it is not a religious evil at its root, no?

The Saudi ringleader of ISIL’s female fighters was killed in clashes with the Syrian army and Kurdish forces in the Hasaka province on Friday. Rima al-Jarish was the media coordinator of ISIL’s al-Khansa Battalion in al-Shadadi town in Hasaka province. Fars News reports: Al-Jarish was wife of a Saudi inmate and mother of an ISIL commander who left Saudi Arabia for Syria in 2014 to join the ISIL.

As part of an inquiry into sex abuse allegations, British police are to spend a year reading through the private papers of the former, late prime minister Edward Heath. Civilian investigators, usually retired officers, will be recruited by Wiltshire Constabulary to examine the archive of the late Conservative PM who died in 2005. At least five police forces have received allegations of child sexual abuse against Heath.

I thank CNN and its excellent master of ceremonies, Anderson Cooper, for the two Republican presidential town halls in South Carolina. Wednesday night we had Dr. Ben Carson, Marco Rubio, and Ted Cruz. Thursday night it was John Kasich, Jeb Bush, and Donald Trump. Each of them had more than a half hour to expound their views, individually, to the audience, and to take questions from the audience.

Below is a notable exchange between the person who may be America's next president and CBS' Scott Pelley:

Key excerpt:

PELLEY: You know, in '76, Jimmy Carter famously said, "I will not lie to you."

 

CLINTON: Well, I have to tell you I have tried in every way I know how literally from my years as a young lawyer all the way through my time as secretary of state to level with the American people.