Singapore News Channel, Singapore News Network

No taking a knee, no political hand gestures and no disrespect during medal ceremonies. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) posted a three-page guideline on Thursday that reiterates Rule 50 of the Olympic Charter. It clearly states how and when athletes can protest during the 2020 Tokyo games.

The IOC said athletes are banned from protesting while on the field of play, in the Olympic Village and during medal and other official ceremonies. However, they are allowed to express political opinions during press interviews outside the Village, in meetings and on traditional and social media.

“We believe that the example we set by competing with the world’s best while living in harmony in the Olympic Village is a uniquely positive message to send to an increasingly divided world,” the IOC said in a statement. “This is why it is important, on both a personal and a global level, that we keep the venues, the Olympic Village and the podium neutral and free from any form of political, religious or ethnic demonstrations.”

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A minister from Chicago is accused of cheating a federal program to feed impoverished children out of money and using $142,000 to buy a Bentley for himself.

Rev Clarence Smith Jr, 45, of the New Life Impact Church, pleaded not guilty to four counts of fraud in US District Court, reported the Chicago Tribune.

Smith allegedly over-reported to the state how many children his church had fed through the program, asking for a bill of $1million.

He then purchased the luxury sedan and wrote personal checks to himself covering other expenses.

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An evangelical seminary in California is accused in a lawsuit of violating a federal anti-discrimination law for kicking out two seminarians who each married someone of the same sex.

Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, expelled graduate students Nathan Brittsan and Joanna Maxon after administrators learned of their same-sex marriages, the lawsuit says.

The multi-denominational seminary holds same-sex marriage to be one of many �unbiblical sexual practices,� along with pre- and extramarital affairs.

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‘Equality’ is undoubtedly the defining goal of socialism. Socialists favor a more equal distribution of wealth and income within society.

The rallying cry of equality has been heard from many a socialist throughout the ages. However, we must be clear on the meaning of equality. Socialists favor a more equal distribution of wealth and income within society. This is in sharp contrast to liberals and to some extent conservatives who favor equality of opportunity (albeit for slightly different reasons).

With regards to equality, it is once again important to identify the distinctions between the various strands of socialism.

Social democrats such as Anthony Crosland assert that all of us have an equal worth regardless of social background. A more even distribution of wealth via progressive taxation, a welfare state based upon universal benefits and a system of comprehensive education all help to achieve a more equal society. This moderate form of socialism seeks to empower the individual from the shackles of the capitalist system.

Those further to the left believe that the state should play a more prominent role within the management of the economy. Only by a significant level of state involvement can we truly achieve an egalitarian society. Democratic socialists reject the social democratic argument that the forces of capitalism can be tamed and therefore humanised. Capitalism is simply incompatible with the socialist goal of equality.

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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told Democrats Friday that she was prepared to send the articles of impeachment passed by the House to the Senate for trial, despite a month-long delay to the process.

The Speaker revealed her intentions in a letter to her Democrat colleagues and obtained by reporters.

�I have asked Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler to be prepared to bring to the Floor next week a resolution to appoint managers and transmit articles of impeachment to the Senate,� Pelosi wrote in the letter. �I will be consulting with you at our Tuesday House Democratic Caucus meeting.�

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Former Secretary of State John Kerry denied that money from a $1.7 billion payment the United States made to Iran in 2016 went toward funding Iran�s recent attack on U.S. bases in Iraq.

Kerry described the payment as a “little bit of money” and accused Secretary of State Mike Pompeo of lying about what Iran used the 2016 cash payment for. Kerry asserted that most of the money was used to pay off Iranian debts and fund economic programs.

“We gave them a little bit of money that was released at that period of time,” Kerry said. “But the fact is the [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] had all the money it wanted.”

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Among several disturbing elements of Christina Cross� New York Times op-ed �The Myth of the Two-Parent Home� is the author�s seeming belief that unless growing up with married parents has the same effect on black children as on white youngsters, it is not worthy of endorsement.

Otherwise, asserts the Harvard postdoctoral fellow, �blindly promoting the merits of marriage and the two-parent family is not the answer.�

Her purpose appears to be to show how black families do in comparison to white families, as opposed to what the absolute impact of strengthened family structure would be on black children. Take this excerpt:

“Although in general, youths raised in two-parent families are less likely to live in poverty, black youths raised by both biological parents are still three times more likely to live in poverty than are their white peers. Additionally, black two-parent families have half the wealth of white two-parent families. So, many of the expected economic benefits of marriage and the two-parent family are not equally available to black children.”

Yet the research Cross herself cites from the National Center for Education Statistics tells a far more hopeful story about the impact of family structure.

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In the wake of claims that an errant missile fired by Iran brought down a passenger jet earlier this week, some Democrats and media voices have appeared to make the case that President Trump at least shares in the blame for the death of 176 civilians.

Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., pointedly laid the blame for the tragedy at Trump’s feet, in an interview Thursday.

�If what is being projected is true, this is yet another example of collateral damage from the actions that have been taken in a provocative way by the president of the United States,� Speier told CNN.

This, following a similar suggestion from Democrat presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg overnight, which appeared to assert a butterfly-effect argument that if the president had not ordered the U.S. military strike that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, Iran would not have retaliated, and therefore, the passenger jet would not have been shot down.

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https://www.foxnews.com/politics/dems-rush-to-implicate-trump-for-plane-crash-linked-to-iran-missile-strike