The new evidence shows that China is systematically using pregnancy checks, forced intrauterine devices, sterilization and even abortion to reduce the population of Uighurs and other Muslims in Xinjiang. Moreover, having too many children is being punished by incarceration in the camps.

…

The campaign to depress the Uighur population appears to be working. Birthrates in the mostly Uighur regions of Hotan and Kashgar plunged by more than 60 percent from 2015 to 2018, the latest year available in government statistics. Across the Xinjiang region, birthrates continue to plummet, falling nearly 24 percent last year alone, compared with just 4.2 percent nationwide.

China long employed coercion in family life with its one-child policy, now abandoned. In Xinjiang, it has sought to whitewash the horrors it is inflicting on people. The new disclosures make it even more urgent that China’s leaders be pressed to account for these atrocities. The measures fall within the definition of genocide in the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which includes “imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.”

President Trump has just signed a new sanctions law against individuals who are found responsible for abuses in Xinjiang. But China’s treatment of the Uighurs is so reprehensible that it calls into serious question whether China should be permitted to proceed as host of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. Why should the world sports community honor a country that has committed genocide?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/whats-happening-in-xinjiang-is-genocide/2020/07/06/cde3f9da-bfaa-11ea-9fdd-b7ac6b051dc8_story.html
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2. Isolated Pope Francis Faces Yet Another Setback in Pandemic, By Francis X. Rocca, The Wall Street Journal, July 7, 2020, 7:00 AM

The world-wide restrictions on public events to deal with the coronavirus pandemic are the latest blow to Pope Francis, whose pontificate has been struggling in recent years to sustain the progressive hopes that the Argentine raised early in his reign.

The pandemic has hindered Pope Francis’s ability to communicate his teachings and promote his causes, from the environment to the rights of migrants, as well as his efforts to tackle the Vatican’s financial troubles. The lack of public events and personal interactions are particular burdens for a pope who is more at home communicating with crowds than in dealing with the Vatican’s bureaucracy.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/isolated-pope-francis-faces-yet-another-setback-in-pandemic-11594119602?
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3. What Now for Pro-Lifers?, Betrayed by John Roberts, some despair of getting justices who will follow the law., By William McGurn, The Wall Street Journal, July 7, 2020, Pg. A13, Opinion

Now pro-lifers feel betrayed again, this time by Chief Justice John Roberts. In June Medical Services v. Russo, he cast the deciding vote rejecting a modest Louisiana law requiring abortionists to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals. The arguments were based less on abortion than on dubious interpretations of principles such as stare decisis and third-party standing.

As Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in dissent, it wasn’t Roe that was in question in June Medical. It was the court’s own integrity—its “willingness to follow the traditional constraints of the judicial process when a case touching on abortion enters the courtroom.”

The court’s disrespect for those constraints once again has pro-lifers crying foul. This time, however, the chief justice’s defection to the liberal camp is leading some to question the whole conservative project of working to appoint jurists who will follow the Constitution and the law.

…

If pro-lifers trust the American people, as we say we do, we don’t need pro-life judges to prevail. What we need is judges who will do what John Roberts promised in his confirmation hearing: call balls and strikes. That ideal hasn’t changed, even if the chief justice has failed to live up to it.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/what-now-for-pro-lifers-11594076155?
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4. Distinguishing reporting from spin on the Pope and Hong Kong, By John L. Allen Jr., Crux, July 7, 2020, Opinion

On Sunday, Pope Francis was set to deliver his usual noontime Angelus address, which often features a brief comment or two on the international situation. As it always does, the Vatican circulated a draft of the address in advance to help reporters prepare, which comes with a strict embargo: We can’t refer to its contents before it’s delivered, and only what the pope actually says is considered official. Anything he skips, therefore, is regarded as having never existed.

Normally popes don’t veer terribly far from the prepared text, sometimes injecting a word or two here or there, skipping a random line for one reason or another, and so on.

However, it’s now a matter of public record that yesterday, Pope Francis omitted a sizeable chunk of text on Hong Kong. I can’t report what the text contained, because I’m bound to honor the conditions under which I received the information. I can report, however, that several Italian news sites have published the text or commented on why it was omitted, and there’s certainly no embargo on their content.

In a nutshell, commentators and news outlets known to be critical of Pope Francis are styling the omission as the latest chapter in what they see as the Vatican’s appeasement of China and its Communist leadership, generally linking it to a deal signed two years ago and shortly up for review that afforded Chinese authorities a role in the nomination of Catholic bishops.

…

In itself, asking the obvious question – “Why did the pope not say it?” –  does not signify taking a position in the broader debates over China, or Francis’s leadership, or anything else. In the days to come, one hopes reporters won’t be discouraged from doing their jobs out of a regrettably understandable anxiety that no matter how hard they try, someone will see it as partisan exercise.

https://cruxnow.com/news-analysis/2020/07/distinguishing-reporting-from-spin-on-the-pope-and-hong-kong/
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5. Pro-life MP hails ‘clear victory’ over abortion amendments, By Catholic News Agency, July 7, 2020, 6:15 AM

A leading pro-life MP welcomed the defeat Monday of attempts to strip away protections for unborn children in the U.K.

Fiona Bruce, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Pro-Life Group, told CNA July 7 that the result was a “clear victory” for the pro-life movement.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/pro-life-mp-hails-clear-victory-over-abortion-amendments-97005
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