Ireland Votes to Legalize Abortion in Blow to Catholic Conservatism – The New York Times

Celebrations at Dublin Castle after the abortion referendum results were announced on Saturday.CreditJeff J Mitchell/Getty Images DUBLIN — Ireland voted decisively to repeal one of the world’s more restrictive abortion bans, the prime minister said Saturday, sweeping aside generations of conservative patriarchy and dealing the latest in a series of stinging rebukes to the Roman…

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‘Brexit’ Fuels Feeling in Scotland That Time Is Right for Independence – The New York Times

A demonstration in Glasgow on Monday, after the Scottish first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, said she would seek permission to hold a new referendum on independence. Credit Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images LONDON — Scotland’s nationalists wasted no time: Just minutes after the country’s leader, Nicola Sturgeon, called on Monday for a new independence referendum, a website…

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Europe Is Facing 4 Existential Tests. Can It Hold Together? – The New York Times

Geert Wilders, the Dutch far-right leader, center, campaigning in Valkenburg on Saturday. Credit Muhammed Muheisen/Associated Press The risk of European disintegration looks significantly more real this week. Multiple crises, each a symptom and cause of the continent’s deepest problems, are converging simultaneously. Britain took a step toward leaving the European Union, and Scotland toward independence….

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